Greyhame
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Posts
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Joined
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Cold is very strong for teaming - great ally buffs and very powerful debuffs. My main support character is Cold/Sonic.
Of the three sets that you named, I'd suggest Dark; great control and debuffs with a very powerful heal. Storm is great, but has a, um, learning curve where teams are concerned. Bubbles... just don't. My first 50 was a bubbler and I loved the set, but if you want great team buffs go Cold and get awesome debuffs at the same time.
On a side note regarding Cold shields: you can color them with dark desaturated colors (on the left side of the palette) and they are barely noticeable. I hate when a Cold teammate shields the team and I suddenly need sunglasses to look at my monitor. -
I've played Ice/Cold Rad/Rad and Cold/Sonic (the last two being defenders) to 50. I agree with most of the posters here, for mostly solo Rad, but on a team (even a small one) Cold >>>>> Rad, especially late game.
Couple nitpicks:
Quote:The Cold shields have a resist component, and therefore power boost has no effect on them.Originally Posted by Delerious
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The shields are fantastic and can be made UBER if you take a patron/app power pool with power boost.
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The +hp frostworks is fantastic on tanks and brutes.
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A. /Cold is stronger 1v1 vs an EB/AV than /rad. Look at the debuff numbers and the amount of debuffs. /Cold wins.
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B. /Rad is far more difficult to solo against groups of enemies especially large groups because mobs tend to wander out of your anchor's rad infection -tohit radius. Even as ice/.
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The +hp of frostworks is uber on melee sets that don't have +HP powers, those that do will usually be at or near the cap (especially late game). For them, frostworks is mostly useless.
/Cold is stronger against AV's if you have a high end IO build with softcapped defense and (near) perma benumb and heat loss. Otherwise Cold's extra high -res is infrequent and will squish unlike Rad with -tohit and a heal.
Ice has 2 holds and ice storm while rad has an excellent slow. Keeping mobs debuffed with rad is fairly easy, especially if you exploit the AI's stupidity (i.e. hover over your anchor while attacking, etc). -
This group should be named "Overkill"
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Quote:^Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
Theft of Essence: Chance for +Endurance is also supposed to turn Dark Regeneration from an Endurance nightmare, to somewhat close to endurance neutral/an endurance boon.
This is Very Important. Add in Numina/Miracle uniques and a Perf. Shifter proc with intelligent attack slotting and your endurance will be managable. I agree with Claws above about Body Mastery as well; its a huge boost for minimal slot investment. -
Editing the edit of my edit.... I've recently been having problems with the game. Crashes shortly after selecting a character and entering the game. Actual blue screen of death video card faults (GeForce 465). I've managed to determine that it is the game, and it started after I first installed the Beta game in the NCsoft launcher (didn't actually run it). Never had any problems prior to that, and nothing else changed with the installation.
Uninstalling the Beta client and repairing the Live game seemed to resolve the issue at first, but it reoccurred. I ended up completely uninstalling the game and launcher then manually deleting their folders and reinstalling. When I reinstalled I used Steam, and I didn't enable Ultra Mode yet (wanted to see if it would be stable without).
So far so good - several days without crash, and I'm running the game directly from the Launcher since Steam gives me a 'cannot determine game version' error (probably related to using a limited user account in Vista). I have seen some weird UI bugs*. If I have no further issues for a few days I'll turn the graphics back up to where they were (close to max Ultra mode) and see what happens.
Filed a ticket with Game Advisor report in case it will be useful to someone up there...
*Example: I was on Moonfire in a mission surrounded by my teammates.... and my team window disappeared leaving me with the 'Search' box that you see when not teamed. My teammates names (over their heads) turned blue - indicating not teamed with me - and I had time to type something in local before I was suddenly back on the team and everything was normal. My teammates said I never left the team; it was just on my end. -
Yes, it's different. No, it's not a mistake - it's a difference in flavor. Different sets = different playstyles. Don't like the playstyle? Don't play it. If they were all the same you would never roll more than one character. Yes, it has disadvantages, but it also has advantages: duration, buff strength > BU, etc. Like any other set, you develop a playstyle that works around its limitations and maximizes its advantages.
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Quote:You're correct that positional defense would protect against more stuff... if you could get enough of it. You can't - not high enough values to enough positions - not without gimping the build. You can softcap S/L without crippling the build though - and it protects against any attack that has a Smashing or Lethal component. That means if something throws an attack that's half energy, half smashing... the smashing defense applies to the whole attack - and the vast majority of attacks in the game are at least partially smashing or lethal. So softcapping S/L will be the more effective build strategy in this case.Originally Posted by AJW
heres the thing though positional grats defense TO ALL regardless of what it is so i would stay with positional but yes use the steadfast 3% defense and touch of nictus is daark regen just stick with positional
Yes, there are situations where it won't help - but looking at the game as a whole, softcapping S/L will help more, in more situations for SS/DA than positional def stacking. -
Quote:No, it's not a complicated server issue. When the target is not affected by a secondary effect, placate has its 'untargetable period'; when the target is affected the 'untargetable period' doesn't happen. It's a spreadsheet power properties fix.Originally Posted by Zem
As to why it hasn't been fixed... I'm not going to re-read this whole thread but wasn't it determined to be one of those tricky client-server race-condition type of timing issues that is difficult or impossible to address without serious changes to the design? Kind of like how the occasional double-crit-after-placate thing isn't "fixed" either.
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All excellent advice above. My SS/DA has softcapped S/L def, somewhat lower on E/N/F/C. Endurance shouldn't be much of an issue with intelligent slotting of attacks and the numina/miracle uniques (as well as the theft of essence +end proc mentioned above). It is something you need to plan for though.
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Quote:I don't understand this argument. Stalker, Brute and Scrapper defenses are the same numbers. There's the HP differences, the tiny def boost of Hide (mostly suppressed), and a few differences in what IO bonuses you can get based on power differences (which an experienced player can work around - Mid's exists for a reason).Originally Posted by obscureent
And to Shadowy Dream, I think that if you DO try to replicate the build as a scrapper or even a brute, you'll find your defenses will fall radically short of the ones posted above. I know this because I tried it myself. While the damage will be higher, the recharge will be slower. And if you can't survive the mobs, whats the point of all your damage?
You think noone can make an equivalent scrapper as good as your stalker? Post the build instead of unsupported screenie snippets. -
Quote:Add Super Speed or Stealth to your scrapper, and the only part of that plan above that a scrapper can't do is placate.... and a mitigating attack (knockdown/stun/epic hold/etc) will do just as well. I understand your point here, and agree that a flat damage boost is not a solution, but you seem to be making the argument that stalkers are 'not wrong, just different'. That I disagree with - there definitely are problems with the AT.Originally Posted by Leo_G
On my Kat/SR who is soft capped with procced out attacks and DA for tanking, can run lots of enemy groups no problem. Then he runs into Devouring Earth with the Guardians and their "you have no defense" power. I have to save BU for them, turn on my stealth sprint and pray I hit them before they summon anything. And if there are 2 guardians in a spawn? Scramble!
For a stalker I can outright kill them and if there are 2, placate and turn the corner so his buddies aren't getting buffs. Things are *easy* when you can plan a whole encounter out and execute it perfectly.
The main problem is that there is virtually nothing a stalker can do that a scrapper can't do better. Stalker core mechanics (hide/placate/as) as they currently stand just aren't very relevant in today's game. Those mechanics need a review and revamp.
**Please note the above comments are in relation to PvE only. -
I'd strongly recommend avoiding a pure smashing or lethal damage set due to how well resisted those damage types are in higher levels. If you want a punching set that isn't DM, try Kinetic Melee.
I've done spines/nin to 50, and if I were going to role another stalker with the sets available today it would be KM or DM with Nin. -
I chose defender for my Cold/Sonic - there is a significant difference in -res debuff potential.
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The game has changed a great deal since the 'crashing' tier 9s were first conceived. Aggro and AoE target limits, spawn changes, etc. The 'one big boom, then recover' philosophy just doesn't fit any more.
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Would it kill someone to develop a working "Server Status" page?
Quote:And by "working" I mean "updates more than once every other month".Updated: 2011-06-24 18:25:02 UTC -
A-merits are easy to come by, even on mid-level characters. If you can't get a mid-level recipie any other way...
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Quote:Supply of what? Generally all other things are *not* equal as increasing supply also increases the amount of INF in the game, and therefore inflation.Originally Posted by Void Spirit
Increasing supply would not "keep inflation going". All other things being equal, greater supply would lead to lower prices, since sellers would compete with each other by lowering prices to make sales.
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Quote:This is correct, the catch is S/L is far easier to build for and requires fewer sacrifices/slots.Originally Posted by Patient_V
Ranged. Common sense and a little twitch skill will make melee/AoE a non-factor and an epic shield will help with the odd S/L shot that does get through.
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Quote:Interesting, didn't know that. Haven't run ElM on a stalker.Originally Posted by Siolfir
It was a widely-reported bug when ElM was ported to Stalkers that I never saw anyone post as being "fixed" that the -recovery effect was breaking Placate. It was specific to that secondary effect only, although as you said, DoT secondary effects break it due to the extra tick of damage.
I haven't played my ElM Stalker in a couple of months now, and it may have been fixed by now - if so, I never saw it in the patch notes. But I have had mobs attack me a couple of seconds after being Placated on my ElM/Nin that I could stand right next to on other primaries (the particular comparisons I'm thinking of are my DM/Nin, EM/WP, and MA/Regen Stalkers). And they aren't special mobs, either - things like Freaks and Council that don't have resistance to Placate. -
Quote:I'm currently leveling mine, so I've been playing with various versions of this:Originally Posted by Snowvein
Curious... has anyone played with updates to these builds (particularly the Moderate Elec/SD) for i19? I couldn't find anything posted, but my search-fu may be weak.
[Edit: Slotting error fixed.]
tldr: no pvp/ho/purples. has softcap, slotted resists/+hp, aid self, and important ios are lower level for exemping.
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Quote:Unless this has recently changed (which is unlikely), the 'secondary effect' placate bug only affects PvP. Speaking as a longtime Spines stalker player; I get to deal with dots (which do break PvE placate) *and* secondary effects (which don't) on every attack except AS.Originally Posted by Siolfir
...As for being able to get AS off, most AVs don't resist Placate and so if it's just one hard target - and you're not ElM, which breaks Placate when -recovery is on the target...
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bump, nice reference.
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Quote:Hmm. Well perhaps I misunderstood your reply to the post you quoted. But when the question is "Why no Spines brutes?" and you quote someone saying, "Its because spines has -recharge which would affect fury generation negatively." then reply by saying "Nah this wouldn't be the case Fury has changed a lot over the years."... well. Sounded to me like you were missing the point. -Recharge *is* the reason Brutes didn't get Spines. An outdated reason at this point, but correct (and important to correct any misunderstandings given the ridiculous misinformation in the beginning of the thread).Originally Posted by Negate
What ARE you talking about? You just paraphrased what my quote said. I've already said that I understand that fury worked differently during the Beginning of Cov. As a matter of fact I even stated that in the Ice/Ice brute thread many, many times.
At any rate, we clearly agree on things as they currently stand. -
Quote:Agreed. I've said in other threads: the core mechanics of Stalkers (Hide/AS/Placate) are unwieldy and inefficient in today's game. The 'add-ons' we've gotten, team-friendly crits, demoralize, etc are nice, but they do nothing to address the real problem.Originally Posted by Blood Red Arachnid
The myriad of difficulties in this AT's signature abilities are needless complications that provide no needed or known balancing features. The fact that skill has to be brought up as a crucial matter when attempting to achieve at best mediocrity in overall team worth indicates that this class needs to be buffed.
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The solution to this problem is simple: Either remove these unneeded complications, or make these complications needed. -
Well, I don't have the money to blow on the recipe, but I have to say: I love your avatar.