Idris

Aww, I would but it's the 3vP night

I had this problem with Trill. Sunstorm wouldn't give me an arc until I had reached the range for the next one and then suddenly he gave me two arcs in succession, first of them just outleveled.

Not to mention that the MM will have to spam his holds a lot more, leaving less time for other powers.

Are these tested numbers, or out some planner? Only my gut feeling is that the duration of Petrifying Gaze is not nearly that good. I could be wrong however but that number seems very surprising both in principle and the impression I have of it ingame.

On the other hand, I do think Fearsome Stare is a more useful power than an AoE hold, especially if you lack Power Boost. A Power Boosted AoE hold with Domination is pretty magnificent, though, and really highlights how incredibly strong Dominators are with Domination up.

Oh, and Jack Frost from Ice Control has a hold as well but he's a very erratic pet and there's no telling if he'll use it.

How bad can Cinders be, 3 seconds? I thought Flashfire and Glacier were just about as pathetic, but at least I had Power Boost to make Glacier somewhat bearable. It seems like the base duration of Flashfire is something like 8-10 seconds? The activation animation feels almost as long and accuracy is pants

Yeah I'd consider the power order. I know it's a respec build but you might want to exemp down for arena matches and lower level zones or even getting rid of debt. There are some powers that I would always get the second they're available, like Integration and Headsplitter.

Don't slot Resilience and take 3 of the endmods out of Stamina, they do practically nothing. Instead slot 3 tohit buffs in FA, since you have it there sucking all you endurance you might as well get as much benefit from it as possible. Also 3-slot Hasten and Build Up and consider 6-slotting Instant Healing. Your accuracy should be extremely good with that build, enough to hit even defense builds pretty consistently.

As far as I know, the magnitude is same as controllers too. I duo my plant/thorns with a sonic/dark corruptor and the only control power he has that I'm jealous of is the cone fear, which is really lovely. The ST hold doesn't even come close to comparing with mine. In fact I think my ST hold is fine, once I get SOs I rarely miss the extra 25% duration that controllers get. I think it really hurts area controls, though. I've been toying with a low level Fire dominator and Flashfire is so bad out of the box that I wonder why I'd even bother to cast it.

There was a thread about it earlier that had lots of good speculation in it. I don't know if I necessarily believe that there's something to be found in Hive, but I can't believe that the current strategies used to beat Hami can be even near optimal. The unbelievable lag, the dependence on controllers, the relative uselessness of damage dealers.. it just doesn't make sense. Why would they have designed a raid like that? There has to be another way.

Really good advice, I agree with everything.

-res and +dam aren't secondary effects. It's apparently a game engine thing, not really a question of logic

Well it depends. If I can stay alive at all I'll get Domination up no problem. I don't pretend I didn't die a lot but I got kills too, even solo. If a spines scrapper decides to make it his goal to destroy me, I still have no chance. I'm not by any means good at pvp but I did fine kiting melee types, and with squishies is was a game of who mezzes whom first. No inspirations makes the game quite different. It may also have helped that the zones were crowded so I was often able to join in battles where I wasn't initially the primary target. Domination decays slowly so you can well do hit and run to build it.

Basically though, if you can be of any use at all in PvP you'll get Domination up pretty often too. All it takes is 10 attacks and firing off an /ice blast takes one second. I don't really see how it's that much worse than any other squishy anymore. I single-handedly killed scrappers yesterday, and it wasn't even that hard.

Now that it's a little closer to actual event, I can definitely say that I'll be able to make it but I might be a bit late depending on when I get home as I'll be away for the weekend.

PS: Go on people, sign up! The debt is nothing to what you'll pick up in RV once that goes live.

EDIT: Oh shoot, just realized that this is on Saturday. I won't be able to make it after all. For some reason I was thinking it was on Sunday

Big congratulations! Seems like we were around same level yesterday, and suddenly you're 11 levels ahead. Must be the kinetics!

Heh, been on the test server yet PRAF68? Pretty easy to get Domination up there.

Fire does do better damage, especially with Fiery Embrace, but it seems to me that the main problem with /Fire in I7 pvp is that Flares is such a sucky power to build Domination with due to short range and long activation time. That said Power Bolt doesn't look too hot either but at least it's better than Flares. Maybe it depends on what you want to concentrate on. In team pvp your primary is probably going to play a much more important role than your secondary and Power Boost helps with that. In duels though, maybe more damage from /Fire is the winner.

Actually I think Ice looks the best secondary for PvP. You get short activation times, very useful secondary effect and Power Boost. This is all in theory, though, as Ice is the only one I've played to 40.

Scrappers are a good choice for a first character because they're pretty easy to get, just dive in and start arresting. As a tanker other players are much more reliant on your performance. That's not to say tankers are too hard for a newbie, just that scrappers are maybe more straightforward to play well.

As for your question, it's really a bit too broad to answer properly. I don't know how familiar you are with the way to build characters in this game, but you get to pick a primary and secondary powerset that each come with 9 power choices. Only a fraction of those are available initially but as you level you get access to more and more powerful abilities. After level 6 you get additional access to power pools that are available to all ATs and that have all kinds of powers to help your character, most notably travel powers that practically everyone gets at level 14, which means getting the prerequisite power before that. You get to pick a new power every second level until level 32, after which it's every third level. Levels in between you will get enhancement slots to place in your existing powers to make them more effective.

Scrapper primary powerset is attacks and secondary is defense, and you'll generally do well by picking a balanced mix from both. Any combination of primary and secondary works, although some have a better synergy than others. Each set has its must have and skippable powers for sure, but that's a long and controversial subject to get into. Just pick a primary and secondary sets that look interesting to you, and then maybe look for example builds and guides on those. You can also just pick powers as you go along, based on what you feel would be most needed at the moment. If you do screw something up seriously it's possible to complete a respec trial later and get to repick your powers (but not the primary and secondary powersets, they stay the same).

Anyway, hope this helped some

I think it doesn't buff +res.

Hmm, I have to admit I haven't been in Faultline much at low levels - there are no missions there spare the hunts, are there? I wish the Faultline trial would make it to live someday, I think the zone looks really cool despite being a pain to navigate.

Anyway, my problem with Perez is that unlike Hollows, it hasn't gotten any better for me. I don't die a lot traveling in Hollows anymore as I'm more accustomed to aggro range and can go around the mobs but I still have no idea how to avoid getting killed in the Perez maze, except invisibility. The only thing I have learned is to try to avoid it if I can.

You aint seen fun until you've got a mission in the depths of Perez Park at level 10

Yay, thanks team! It's a drag of a TF but I got a shiny badge and quite a few levels to boot so I'm happy.

I agree with PRAF. Your core powers are not very well slotted, you need to concentrate on them before putting slots in things like Fly and Hover. Chillblain doesn't need any slots except for accuracy. Ice Slick needs 3 recharges, I wouldn't bother with the endurance reducer though.

I don't think Tactics offers enough benefit to warrant two power choices, though. I'd rather go for Medicine if I had powers to spare.

Speaking of Claws/SR, any opinions on mine? It is currently level 10 and this is my tentative plan. As you see I'm planning to go without Stamina. If needed I'll swap some of the recharges in attacks into endurance reductions, but I'm hoping the I7 Claws endurance discount will cover it. If not, well there's always the I7 freespec..

I know Strike would be a more effective choice than Swipe but the new I7 Swipe just looks so damn cool. I gotta say Swipe+Slash pair is feeling pretty gimped on live right now, though. Weapons Mastery is concept and stays.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: microcuts
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Claws
Secondary: Super Reflexes
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Swipe==> Acc(1)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(13)EndRdx(48)
01) --> Focused Fighting==> EndRdx(1)DefBuf(17)DefBuf(17)DefBuf(31)EndRdx(50)
02) --> Slash==> Acc(2)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(11)EndRdx(48)EndRdx(48)
04) --> Focused Senses==> DefBuf(4)DefBuf(23)DefBuf(23)EndRdx(31)EndRdx(50)
06) --> Spin==> Acc(6)Dmg(7)Dmg(7)Dmg(11)Rechg(37)EndRdx(37)
08) --> Follow Up==> Acc(8)Acc(9)Rechg(9)Rechg(13)TH_Buf(15)TH_Buf(15)
10) --> Practiced Brawler==> Rechg(10)Rechg(31)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Dodge==> DefBuf(16)DefBuf(40)DefBuf(42)
18) --> Focus==> Acc(18)Dmg(19)Dmg(19)Dmg(21)Rechg(21)Rechg(34)
20) --> Quickness==> Run(20)
22) --> Stimulant==> IntRdx(22)
24) --> Aid Self==> Heal(24)Heal(25)Heal(25)IntRdx(29)EndRdx(37)EndRdx(46)
26) --> Eviscerate==> Acc(26)Dmg(27)Dmg(27)Dmg(29)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(46)
28) --> Agile==> DefBuf(28)DefBuf(42)DefBuf(42)
30) --> Lucky==> DefBuf(30)DefBuf(43)DefBuf(43)
32) --> Shockwave==> Acc(32)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)EndRdx(34)Rechg(43)
35) --> Evasion==> DefBuf(35)DefBuf(36)DefBuf(36)EndRdx(36)EndRdx(50)
38) --> Elude==> DefBuf(38)DefBuf(39)DefBuf(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Caltrops==> Slow(41)
44) --> Shuriken==> Acc(44)Dmg(45)Dmg(45)Dmg(45)EndRdx(46)
47) --> Web Grenade==> Acc(47)
49) --> Hurdle==> Jump(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

With all the level 50s, maybe there'd be a sidekick spot for my little level 10 SR scrapper?

Jack has a little AI problem which causes him to hang back at range. Like Lady Darkforce mentioned, he runs into melee if he gets attacked. One way is to use a stealth power to lure him close enough to a spawn to aggro them, another is recall friend and yet another is teleporting foe next to him. I've tried all three and I think I prefer stealth, although teleport foe is quite nice as well. I found recall friend to have a bit too short range and it's a bit slow too. They all work though so I'd just pick whatever power you find otherwise most useful.

If you can't afford any of those powers, you can probably do pretty well by not controlling whatever mob he's attacking. Once he switches to melee mode he tends to stay there. It's worthwhile to maneuver a little because he really is pretty good in melee.

Yeah, ok. But the thing is, it's just not reasonable to expect people to adjust their behaviour to extremities like that unless they know about it, and even then it's IMO a case of the minority needing to adjust, either by getting treatment, accepting that they're getting hurt or removing themselves from the situation where they're constantly getting hurt. I know people can't help feeling the way they feel so I didn't mean "get a grip" in that sense.