Greyhame
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Posts
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Joined
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My reason: these are combinations that I either rolled first, or stuck with long enough to make an impression on me.
Blaster: Fire/Energy
Brute: SS/Dark
Controller: Ill/FF
Corruptor: Ice/Cold
Defender: Rad/Rad
Dominator: Plant/Psi
Mastermind: Bots/Dark
Scrapper: BS/Regen
Stalker: Spines/Nin
Tanker: Fire/Fire -
Can anyone clarify the exact reason that PB affects bubbles but not ice shields?
I vaguely remember a mechanics explanation from years ago... Something about not being able to affect defense powers with resist components without screwing some other thing up? I've been going over City of Data and I can't figure out what the problem would be. -
Quote:The shades do fail to spawn if your target dies after you activate the summoning, but before they have spawned. Its a small window, but has happened enough times that I won't usually summon on anything less than a boss.Originally Posted by Blue_Fenix
Haunt actually recharges 30 seconds faster than Phantom Army. And the Shades do not go away when your original target dies. However, the Shades can be killed, which can shorten the duration a lot
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I'm pretty happy with the recharge/duration of Haunt right now as-is. Plus, the devs probably didn't want to make it easyto have two sets of Shades out at once. -
Quote:Are you running any kind of procs in those powers?Originally Posted by JayboH
Is Fearsome Stare and Dark Grasp supposed to let enemies get a shot off before you hit them with anything else?
A very long time ago I played with a dark defender and I don't recall hitting enemies with Fearsome and have tons of incoming fire come at me as a result. -
I wanna see wolf drumdance
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Quote:We don't need to be able to lock them in place. I don't mind caltrop scatter and some self-preservation behavior. That said, ranged pets should default to fighting from range and melee to melee.Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
Problem with adding it for MM's is, to them, the 'run into melee' bug isn't actually a bug and is more 'balance'.
If we could lock our pets in place to fire at will... Think about how OP'd that'd turn Bots into, or Thugs...
I strongly believe they haven't fixed it yet, not because they don't know how, but rather because they don't want to.
You may be right about the 'balance' but I have said before and will say again: if the devs think the right way to balance MMs is to make the pets bloody-*******-stupid, they are wrong. -
As a brute most enemies you fight will be in melee, especially with a damage aura keeping them on you. Sacrificing S/L or Melee defense in favor of Ranged/AoE seems... counter-productive.
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Quote:I was also going to say the best team build would be a defender, but based on this - you're clearly going to be happier with a corruptor. I usually prefer corrs myself; the only exception is my Cold/Sonic defender rolled specifically for team support.Originally Posted by BasketballJosh1289
The only reason I am going corrupter is because I love damage. I have so many toons that are damage base... actually... all my toons are damaged based. I wanted a toon that could however support a team and do damage at the same time. Hence the pick of the corrupter. Son/Rad would be cool as long as I can get help on it :P I have only made brutes, blasters, and scrappers so my knowledge in this area is really really weak >.<
Also Cold > Rad. Just sayin'
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Quote:Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
False. False false false.
The Performance Shifter proc will grant Endurance to the target of the power, but will only affect friendly targets. In Stamina, it gives it to you. In Transferrence, it gives it to your team. In Ball Lightning, it does squat.I'm a little confused by this. Transference targets enemies.Quote:Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
Charged Bolts targets enemies. Performance Shifter's proc only affects friendly targets. Ergo, Charged Bolts with a Performance Shifter Proc is wasting an Enhancement.
In the event of getting Endurance back from Charged Bolts itself, that's inconsequential. Charged Bolts targets enemies, and that's what Performance Shifter checks. -
Map: Unknown
To explore strange new servers, to seek out new villains and new cities, to boldly go where no hero has gone before. -
Quote:I agree with your one thing. I could tolerate playing my MM if the stupid bots didn't run into melee after being told goto(a ranged position)/attack. Maybe two new attack commands: attack ranged and attack melee. That way we could customize per pet what kind of attacking we want them to do.Originally Posted by Comicsluvr
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So...what would YOU change?
I didn't bother with COV beta but I was told at one time the pets did exactly as ordered and the AI was later changed to give them a little more independence, so I wouldn't be surprised if you are right. That said, my one thing is still: fix the $#@^& AI. Devs have been wrong before, and if they think a BLOODY-STUPID-MAKES-ME-WANT-TO-SCREAM-AT-THE-MONITOR AI is the right way to balance MMs then they are wrong now. I suspect in-game character creation/play statistics show that most players agree with me.Quote:Originally Posted by Jibikao
What if MM's balance is based on the fact that some pets do go in and they are supposed to die or supposed to put more pressure on the master to babysit them? -
Quote:I had a similar issue where no beacons showed. Relogging to a different character fixed the problem.Originally Posted by BlueBattler
I got the old Dark Astoria beacon just before I22 dropped and never installed it. I got the new one today. My SG badge collection shows I have the beacon but neither Echo or Dark Astoria are showing up in my beacon list. Any idea what's wrong?
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Quote:That matches better with what I've observed. I don't have any objection to the % chance mechanic tied to recharge; I just think the devs need to add consideration for different activation times as well.Originally Posted by Jibikao
The initial patch note was wrong. Focus generation is based on the "base recharge" of the powers, not "animation" time.
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Quote:If the patch notes are wrong and it really is based on activation times, that would form a crude sort of balance. However the chance of buff on a T1 short animation attack is still very high (it has to be for the buff to be useful) so its not much of a balance. I am NOT suggesting that the chance be reduced. The issue is timing; tinkering with percent chance of buff doesn't address the problem correctly - it needs a timing fix.Originally Posted by Test_Rat
Yup thats what I meant.
Its been a long day.
Agreed.Quote:Originally Posted by Codewalker
Really the right fix would be to make the length of the buff for each power 10 seconds + (Animation Time - Frames Before Hit), so that it lasts 10 seconds past the end of the activation. Otherwise long activating powers that hit near the beginning, like Shadow Maul, are at a disadvantage. -
Quote:Are you saying the patch notes are incorrect? Because they say:Originally Posted by Test_Rat
This is already balanced by the fact that quick anmiation attacks have a lower chance to grant stacks of assassin's focus.It's not even remotely the same thing.Quote:
Powers with longer recharge times have a much higher chance to grant a stack of Assassin's Focus. -
Thank you Devs. You've done a great job making stalkers interesting to me again, and believe me that wasn't easy. I've been playing DM/Nin and Spines/Nin and noticed I had a much easier time getting an orange-circle (OC) AS with DM. This made me wonder about the exact mechanics of AF, so I did some testing.
TL;DR Conclusion: AF is vastly easier to leverage with sets that have multiple fast-activating attacks. Quick activations = longer OC time = easier to get OC AS. Longer activations = less OC time and the player has a very short window to target/position/attack before OC drops.
The patch notes say longer recharging attacks have a better chance to grant AF, but I rarely saw it fail to appear even from Shadow Punch or Lunge. Activation time isn't factored in at all, so sets like Spines that use long-activating attacks will just have a harder time.
I've confirmed that each instance of AF lasts 10 seconds, independent of other instances of AF and independent of activation/animation times. The buff is granted when the NPC first takes damage, not when the animation begins or ends. This is actually decent for Spines with its damage-at-the-end attacks (Ripper/Impale) but bad for Shadow Maul because it starts damaging right at the beginning and then keeps me locked in the animation for several more seconds, wasting AF buff time.
Regardless, in order to make AF non-biased for specific powersets it should be altered to take activations into account somehow. The best solution would be a variable duration AF buff i.e. 10 seconds+activation time. I don't know if that's feasible given coding and server processing time contstraints. A simpler solution would be for each new instance of AF to partially refresh all previous instances i.e. my third attack adds a third AF with 10s timer and adds 2 more seconds to the timers of the first and second AF buffs (with all timers capped at 10s so stupid things don't happen). There may be better ways to handle it; I've actually been up all night so the greymatter isn't running at peak efficiency.
For reference
Patch notes:
Quote:In-game description of AF:Assassin's Focus: All damaging powers found in the Stalker's primary power set, other than Assassin Strike, have a chance to grant the user a stack of the Assassin's Focus buff. Powers with longer recharge times have a much higher chance to grant a stack of Assassin's Focus than those with fast recharge times. This buff will increase Assassin's Strike's chance to critically hit (for +100% damage) while not hidden by 33.3%. Assassin's Focus stacks up to 3 times. Using Assassin's Strike outside of hide will remove all stacks of Assassins's Focus.
Quote:Hitting enemies with Stalker primary damaging powers, other than Assassin's Strike, can grant you a stack of Assassin's Focus. Each stack lasts for 10 seconds and will increase Assassin's Strike's critical hit chance by 33.3% when you're not hidden. -
Quote:Since the game includes tech to make powers behave entirely differently in PvE vs. PvP this isn't a valid reason to nix any PvE change.Originally Posted by TheBruteSquad
Nah. That would be annoying in pvp, where moving around a corner is a great way to counter being AS'd. Not that AS hurts too badly in modern pvp, mind you, but it's still a hit best avoided.
I commented a month or two ago in one of the stalker bashing threads that Placate has a fairly absurd base recharge given its extremely limited utility. I'd like to see the recharge cut in half or less; we would have more opportunity to use those nifty controlled crits.Quote:Originally Posted by oreso
Those mourning the loss of usefullness of Placate (which I totally don't mind personally), but maybe Placate would be more attractive if it was a 5-target AoE like Taunt? Maybe with a -tohit debuff or something to help the team?
Ok, that will certainly help with leveling. On the high end... its still cool. I'm not sure how big an impact it will have, depends on how how 'no windup time' translates into DPA.Quote:Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
We're testing three improvements to stalkers in i22:
-Assassin's Strike: using Assassin's Strike outside of hide will be an uninterruptible attack with no windup time, dealing Superior damage. This will allow Stalkers to do very competitive dps.
That's... very cool. How cool will depend on the exact mechanics and how many smaller attacks are needed to have a high chance of AS+crit. But this is very, very nice; piss poor damage out of hide has been a major issue since forever.Quote:Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
-All Stalker attacks that are not Assassin's Strike will build stacks of a buff called Assassin's Focus. Assassin's Focus increases your chance to critically strike with the out-of-hide Assassin's Strike.
Not huge for most sets, but a definite must for Regen, WP, etc. Sets that have powers that boost HP... except they don't because of the cap... yea that's always been kinda silly.Quote:Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
-Stalker Buffed Max HP will be increased by about 400. This should allow them to fully benefit from powers like dull pain, hoarfrost, etc.
On the whole I'm quite pleased. -
Quote:This. Works great all the way up to 50 and beyond. You can even make a targeting macro so you don't have trouble finding the slick in a crowded battlefield. Slick, Target, Apprentice Charm. Works like, well, a charm.Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
A popular option for some TA characters is to make the character Magic or Tech origin. That way you can use your origin power (Apprentice charm or Taser) to light the slick.
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Quote:I leveled Elec/SD and Fire/SD both to 50 because I couldn't make up my mind between them. I don't Farm or hunt AV's etc. 'cause it bores me to tears, so my experience is from team/TF general play with moderately priced builds softcapped to all positions. I finally retired the elec/sd and kept the fire; reason being while elec is awesome, it wasn't able to keep pumping out consistent AoE like fire can. Having super-awesome aoe attacks is cool, but if they're recharging and I'm stuck using plinky little elec attacks... I am so not happy. Fire is better for consistent gameplay.Originally Posted by Werner
I love my Fire/Shield, and have pretty good AoE, but Fire Sword Circle, Shield Charge and Fire Ball are probably not as good as it gets. Surely Electric/Shield has better AoE?
I haven't looked too hard, but I was hoping to find a point of comparison on YouTube. It certainly appears that my Fire/Shield kills +3x8 Council faster (40 seconds per spawn including travel time) than a random Electric/Shield kills +1x8 (?) Council (60 seconds per spawn including travel time). I do have the alpha slot level Shift (no other incarnate powers though). Who knows what sort of build a random Scrapper on YouTube is running, though, plus their mobs seemed scattered more than mine. For what it's worth:
Fire/Shield
Anyone have a good example of good kill speed on Council with an Electric/Shield? A Spines/Fire? Other?
Electric/Shield
Mind you, I have no idea if we're talking about AoE while leveling, AoE on SOs at 50, AoE fully IO'd and incarnated, or what. -
Quote:What!? WHAT!!!!? You, Sir, have exercised polite rationality on teh intarwebs!!!1 THIS CANNOT STAND!!11!!!!!!1!!Originally Posted by Draeth Darkstar
I could not even begin to list the number of people I have personally been harassed by for this very subject, let alone the number of people I have seen harass others over it. Also, this is, once again, an unnecessarily disingenuous response.
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In what way would it hurt you for the game to allow an optional removal of knockback?
P.S. Kindly do me the favor of responding to me with the respect I have shown you if you bother to do so at all, again. I do not appreciate being talked down to and I have been nothing but polite to you and everyone else in this conversation. Additionally, I can only assume you're intentionally misinterpreting what I have posted to respond to it in turn as you did in the last section of your post. All you are doing by employing a tactic like that is discrediting your own argument. -
Quote:Because I was talking about AoE KB where the entire group is scattered. Why else would we be talking about /follow in reference to melee characters and KB?Originally Posted by MikeRobe
Why would the inv follow 1 mob, EA, Shield, Ice Armour, blah blah blah...? if you need to be with the group stay with the group and let the person who kb'd the 1 deal with that mob...
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Quote:This. If you want Regen on a character with tons of HP roll a brute. I'm currently playing a StJ/Regen brute. Regen just isn't built for taking alphas (outside of MoG). The Immortality line metric commented on above (and Regen's performance with it) is inapplicable to tanking/alpha strike situations.Originally Posted by Wintry
They would die en masse.
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Quote:I'm with TheBruteSquad on this. Tanking with Regen is technically possible (especially on the high end). But generally speaking, you'll be better with Invuln, WP, Elec, Shield.... etc. Tanking generally includes taking an alpha, and defense/resist sets are better at that than Regen.Originally Posted by Vauluur
Recently I've been noticing that my character list does not include a good tank. I have several Tankers I'm working on but I find myself getting bored with their low damage numbers. So now I'm trying to figure out what I can make to serve as a good Tank and still deal good damage. The Brute seems to be the natural solution to my problem. I'm leaning towards a StJ/Regen. Would a heavily IO'd /Regen Brute be capable of tanking reliably?
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Quote:I leveled a SS/DA brute to 50 before IO's existed. Plenty of that was solo so its not like I was running around with a pocket kin either. DA is playable on SO's but the END management is challenging. I agree that the heal is the big END killer, but the Theft of Essence proc fixed that, more or less, for anyone with access to IO's. For freeps... well, its still going to be extra challenging unless they pay up for an IO license. Nothing wrong with that, really.Originally Posted by JayboH
Personally, I think one change and one change only would make Dark Armor a far more viable set, even for tankers - and don't point me to that one video of a Dark Armor tank that is listed in the owner's sig because we all know he is defense softcapped...
Cut the heal and end cost of Dark Regeneration in half. That's it. Oppressive Gloom can cause a person to use Dark Regen more often in certain situations and builds dependent on level and slotting if you think about it.
Leave the end cost of Cloak of Fear alone - everything in the whole set is balanced outside of dark regen. The heal is TOO HIGH and unnecessary which is the whole argument against the gigantic end burn, not even considering the tohit check requirement.
REMEMBER that we need the set to be viable to Freebies that only have access to SOs, and you need to weigh the cost of Acrobatics on top of everything else.
Remember that the Cloak of Fear issues and Dark Regen's values are not the only hurdles people need to make up for. Knockback protection is another big hole (yes, easily fixed, but still, we need to remember Freebies with their SOs.) The number one complaint even after the revamps years ago has always been end cost - always. The toggles are fine, even with Cloak of Fear, considering how useful that power is. Dark Regen is the true endurance destroyer, considering how often you need to use it with the low resistance values of the set. Cloak of Fear and Opressive Gloom are the tools that make up for those low resist numbers - and running them all, at all times, should be the main goal in my eyes, like every single other set in the game. It's Dark Regeneration, even fully slotted with level 50 vanilla IOs for end cost, STILL takes a big bite out of your end.
Thoughts? -
Quote:Following 1 mob doesn't help Invincibility nearly as much as having several mobs gathered. The same is true for EA, Sheild, WP, and you know, anyone else that wants to kill things with an AoE (including my Fire blaster). Just sayin'.Originally Posted by MikeRobe
/unsigned on the OP's suggestion.
If Null is able to turn your kb down I want him to be able to turn mine up. I get that knockup/down is great and knockback is "the sux0r" but I am in agreement with Sailboat. KB doesn't adversely affect ranged players at all and from what I've seen, the only people it really hurts is the melee folk who can't find the "f" key on their keyboards.
I don't have a problem with KB in general, but there are a few places I'd be happy to see it turned off. And I have no problem whatsoever with allowing noobs who can't or won't learn to control it to turn it off.