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Posts
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Joined
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Stuck with it!
At any rate, with tanker builds typically being tight below 20 due to the need to work in Stamina, at least with most primaries, something will have to be postponed or skipped. And by the time you can work in Smite, you can also work in Shadow Maul, which is usually better for a tanker because of the (slight and difficult) multi-target potential.
On a Brute, the choice is harder. -
My next short tale, Ecloga prima, will be in Latin. I was inspired by how easy it was to create fauns and satyrs in the character creator.
Is it possible to flag the story as being not in English? Or would it have to be uploaded from a European server to do that? -
I wish I had thought of Battle-Hardened. That's great.
Of all the character bios I've written, these are my favorites:
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The aesthetic annoyances of Stone Armor are a major reason why I lost interest in my stone/axe tanker. I have Swift three slotted, took Teleport in addition to another travel power to let me get up the step, but I have never gotten interested enough in the character to replace the old SO build with an IO build.
This is probably the same reason why I have never tried to polish my Ice tanker after i9, and never gotten a Kheldian past level 16. -
Fire is the best AoE secondary set for tankers, and does very good damage. Its AoE superiority starts early, with Combustion at level 4.
The tradeoff is essentially zero control and thus no mitigation. This can be partially reversed by choice of pool powers (Air Superiority is something I'd recommend).
Shields and Invuln are both pretty good. Shields has its signature power, a quite strong attack in Shield Charge: that attack makes the set. Apart from that, it's a positional defense set --- no holes, but given the current state of the game, slotting defense bonuses as a priority is not what I'd choose to prioritize.
Invuln is one of the strongest sets for pure survival after Granite, with none of its drawbacks. It is also a fairly free to build set; most of the passive powers can be postponed until the late game without gimping yourself, and they don't eat slots like the Shield powers do either. -
I'm not sure your powersets or your build have a whole lot to do with surviving a tower buffed Recluse. Your build seems surely adequate; my only concern would be that you have no resistance in True Grit.
You're still going to need a whole lot of defense inspirations to keep yourself far enough above the defense cap that Recluse has an occasional chance of missing. You'll need many, many resistance inspirations to prevent him from two shotting you. And you'll still be relying on a pocket healer and buffs. Your own powers make a relatively slight difference. -
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I am experiencing mysterious, time related difficulties connecting to the forums myself.
I am typically able to connect early in the morning locally, around 7:45 AM EST, and check messages. Later in the mornings, the boards seem to die. I confirm that the rest of the Internet is still up. I ping boards.cityofheroes.com and it times out with total packet failure, the same result that comes when I try to bring up the site in my browser.
Then, at some time in the afternoon, they return. I wonder if the boards are under some kind of DDOS attack that peaks in the mid morning for some reason. -
Went through this fifteen years ago with the release of a program called Forgotten Realms - Unlimited Adventures. That was a game creator from SSI, patterned after the old "Gold Box" AD&D based games like "Pool of Radiance" and "Curse of the Azure Bonds", and that were played using essentially the same engine.
Those games varied in quality, but every one of them was a long, fairly tedious, maguffin driven dungeon crawl filled with random combats for the sake of combat. When the first designs were made, they tended to resemble the officially released commercial games.
Eventually, the creator base tightened them up considerably, with faster paced storytelling and far less routine combat. The best of the fan-made games were both briefer and faster paced than the style of the original games.
There does seem to be a tendency towards brevity and faster pace fairly clearly expressed as a preference of the player base that's interested in stories. Flavor text is important. Identical events should not repeat much. -
Your best tanker for PvP, in my limited experience, is a grav/thermal defender.
Energy melee is still king of single target burst damage; but your target is going to be miles away before you can land a follow up, unless you have an agreement for a stand-up fight. -
I discovered to my somewhat surprise that I had a level 4 tanker on Liberty that I had made more than 2 1/2 years ago. Mostly to test a silly concept costume. Ice/SS, looks like. So I don't even have to create a new character.
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Doesn't Silver Mantis currently use a version of metal spines in game? I suspect she's going to be the model for them.
My spines scrapper is named after Betsy Ross. Whichever spines I choose, they will be red, white, and blue. -
Quote:I never plan on devoting more slots to a power than I would using a SO/generic build in order to claim set bonuses.I must admit though, that I have a hard time committing 6 slots to a def or res power to get a bonus, since you should be able to get by with 4 slots.
Most attacks worth taking get five or six slots. But I seldom if ever devote more than four or five slots to a defensive toggle, three max for a passive - at least unless they have multiple aspects to slot up. -
I have not seen them that low, at least not blue side. I don't do random rolls, because they are random. Moreover, even if my luck were not what it usually is and I ended up with anything other than pet damage and sniper recipes, I'd probably end up making and hoarding them rather than selling them, just because useful recipes can't be replaced for a reasonable price.
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Quote:At least in the NA servers, Kinetic Combat is sky high for a set that tops out at level 35 - except for the knockdown proc, which is fortunately avoided. I've seen the top end recipes go for as high as 18 - 20 million. AFAIAC that makes them merits-only.Reactive armor afaik aint that expensive, kinetic combat is cheap also and is a great filler for your 'u have to pick that power' slotting. Along with Weave and CJ, 44% defense on SL and a lovely 30ish on the elements. This i think should be higher, since Mid's doesnt do great on Invincibility.
I wouldn't have them but for the fact that I have defenders and controllers that are levelling up with task forces too, and who get SOs and generic IOs and use the merits to buy things for my melees. -
My understanding is that Invincibility ticks once a second with an effect that lasts one second. It may be that a mob has a heightened chance to hit you if the mob hits with the fraction of a second before it registers.
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Generally, all of the most sought after defense bonus sets, and even many of the minor ones, cannot currently be bought in the auction house within a reasonable time from the influence dropped from defeating enemies in normal play. Unless you farm or play the manipulation game, you're currently SOL.
They will have to be bought with merits, and that is going to take some time, although it will take less time than buying them with influence. The only way you will put yourself in the running is by getting a lucky purple drop you can't use and auctioning it, or getting even luckier with random rolls from merits or tickets: and that obviously is not something you can rely on. Remember, there's pet damage and sniper stuff in the task force pool too.
The best way to look at Wentworth's / Black Market right now is like the Cathedral of Pain trial: something that's theoretically part of the game but really isn't implemented right now. -
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I try to say something about most arcs I manage to finish. I especially look for arcs tagged as humorous. If I can see places where more humor could have been inserted I point them out. Too many have custom mobs or bosses without patrols or non-required boss encounters that could have been used to add text.
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Defense also stacks with -tohit, and almost every attack in dark melee does some -to hit. Some attacks, like Touch of Fear, do a lot; it's worth slotting that in it. Defense makes you harder to hit; -tohit makes it harder for them to hit you, so they stack.
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I agree - yes to all three. You can postpone Stamina for a ways, especially if you are also taking Dark Consumption - but I'd rather take Stamina than an attack that has such a slow recharge, myself. Having both QR and Stamina is one of the chief advantages of a Regen scrapper.
One other suggestion - your build will be tight with both Fitness, Fighting, Hasten, and a travel power in addition to your primary and secondary. If it turns out that you have only room for one epic pool, get Caltrops. Moment of Glory is one panic button. Caltrops is a second one. Very useful if you need a few seconds to escape. -
Quote:Much depends on what you plan on using this scrapper for. If you do a couple weeks of Synapse and Sister Psyche runs on your scrapper (Positron, I would not wish on anyone) you could get all of those LotGs in a short time.Heraclea, that build looks pretty hardass, but when I say cheap, I mean under 5k per or so. Luck of the Gambler is out of reach at any level for me; I don't even have those on my 50.
On the other hand, the fact that current market prices are out of reach for most PvE players is something we're not supposed to notice here. I run a lot of alts myself, and the only reason they have sets is that they support each other.
The main point was to suggest that Regen was also a secondary that deserved consideration. Eventually, you could build something similar, and frankenslotting real drops will help it more. -
I'd give serious thought to Regeneration for a build that stops at 24. Regen gets nervous and fussy in the 40+ game, but below 30 it's a joy, quite tough, and can keep going without Fitness, giving you the leisure to focus on your primary and secondary powers.
Just as a thought experiment, this is a level 24 build I came up with for DM/Regen. That's probably the toughest combo, given that you can get substantial -to hit, and that regen bonuses are easier to come by now than defense bonuses, especially at those levels:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 25 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Fighting
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb:24(A), Cloud-Acc/Rchg:24(3), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:24(3), Cloud-%Dam:24(17)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:24(A), RgnTis-Regen+:24(5), Mrcl-Heal:24(17)
Level 2: Shadow Maul -- Erad-Acc/Rchg:24(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:24(5), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:24(7), Erad-Dmg:24(13)
Level 4: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-End%:24(A), P'Shift-EndMod:24(7), EndMod-I:25(23)
Level 6: Touch of Fear -- N'mare-Acc/Rchg:24(A), N'mare-Acc/EndRdx:24(11), N'mare-Acc/Fear/Rchg:24(23)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- Theft-Acc/Heal:24(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal:24(9), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:24(9)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Mrcl-Heal/Rchg:24(A), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:24(11)
Level 12: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:24(A), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:24(13)
Level 14: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx:24(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:24(15), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:25(15)
Level 16: Integration -- EndRdx-I:25(A)
Level 18: Dark Consumption -- Erad-Acc/Rchg:24(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:24(19), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:24(19)
Level 20: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:25(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:25(21), LkGmblr-Rchg+:25(21)
Level 22: Resilience -- ResDam-I:25(A)
Level 24: Reconstruction -- Tr'ge-Heal/Rchg:24(A)
Level 26: [Empty]
Level 28: [Empty]
Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
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Set Bonus Totals:- 3% Defense(Smashing)
- 3% Defense(Lethal)
- 3% Defense(Fire)
- 3% Defense(Cold)
- 11.1% Defense(Energy)
- 11.1% Defense(Negative)
- 3% Defense(Psionic)
- 3% Defense(Melee)
- 7.06% Defense(Ranged)
- 3% Defense(AoE)
- 7.65% Max End
- 1.65% Enhancement(Terrorized)
- 13.8% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 5% FlySpeed
- 45.2 HP (3.37%) HitPoints
- 5% JumpHeight
- 5% JumpSpeed
- MezResist(Confused) 2.5%
- MezResist(Held) 2.5%
- MezResist(Immobilize) 2.5%
- MezResist(Sleep) 2.5%
- MezResist(Stun) 2.5%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 2.5%
- 9% (0.15 End/sec) Recovery
- 20% (1.12 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 5% RunSpeed
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Quote:This game invites every player to make at least twelve characters on each server. That fact alone argues in favor of being able to develop any character fairly quickly.But nobody is right and wrong in that regard. Some people want to be rewarded quickly, some want to be rewarded slowly. It's all a matter of what you want out of your MMO experience.
At any rate, under current conditions, the less you depend on defense bonuses as the key element you want from your IO sets, the easier you will find it to develop your character. When the IO system came out and I started playing regularly again, they were never a priority. +Recovery and +endurance were far more important. I have not respecced out of those builds; they still serve me as well as they ever did. Defense bonuses are powerful, but they are hard to come by under current conditions, so characters that have other ways to improve might be the way to go.
And, FWIW, I didn't really start enjoying the DM/SR scrapper either until I had gotten all three of the Numina, Miracle, and Performance Shifter endurance enhancements. This is on top of Dark Consumption. And, of course, all that stuff had to be bought with merits as well; if I pooled the influence on all my level 50 heroes, they still wouldn't be able to get one of those recipes from the AH. Even my Dark Armor/Ice tanker was easy to play at a decent pace by contrast. This is another factor that argue against choosing /SR, IMO. -
I did not mean to threadjack here with a post about the moral issues posed by the market.
It remains the case that it is not possible within a reasonable time to meet the prices currently on the market with the influence dropped by defeated enemies in normal play. Specific enhancements needed for set bonuses usually need to be bought with merits. This means that you will end up waiting a very long time in order to build a character that relies on defense bonuses for performance under current conditions to achieve the numbers in your ideal build.
This means that in the current game, layered sets like Willpower have a fairly strong advantage over defense sets like SR and Shields, which are strongest when they meet the cap. Whether Willpower is the best set to solo AVs, given the fact that it too is somewhat susceptible to burst damage, I don't know; I've never built scrappers that way. (I once tried to solo a Pylon on my DM/SR scrapper. I didn't die, but got bored after around twenty minutes; the pylon was at about half life.)
It just means that a Willpower character that's fun to play will also be easier to build.