JusticeisServed

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Plenty of people are playing their Khelds just fine. Sure, this change is annoying, but it in no way "borks" Kheldians as an AT for me or apparently for many other players.

Given that it's obvious you just want to rant about how you believe Kheldians are unplayable until your free time runs out rather than discuss this in any fashion, I'm not sure what's left except off-topic derailings of the thread and posts about your lack of mastery of the English language.

There is one way to avoid the so-called "Internet Neo-Maxi-zoom-dweebies" - use proper spelling and grammar. Or go away, that works too.

IBTL

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Yay! A voice of reason.

While the "toggle lock" is a somewhat irritating factor it's no way game breaking. The tweaks to the game have made both triforms and single forms substantially more valuable to a team. Now that Toggles won't drop when a human form is mezed (taking them out of combat while they re-toggle) us game changing.

The fact that the dwarf and nova forms get the buffs from the team make them rather amazing too.

I've got 2 triforms (one shade one pb) and 2 Single forms (one shade, one pb) and ALL 4 have seen drastic improvements since their change.

Yes sometimes the "toggle lock" makes me get stuck for a second on the triform, but If you set up your tray right it's not hard to put a button there to drop a form.

Toggle lock is like 1 step back, but in the process we've been given one HUGE leap forward.

Before the previous issue it was WAY harder to find people who wanted shades/pb on the team.

I certainly have heard the term, "sweet a PB/Ws" much more than previously.

And seriously.. The minor problem with khelds have made you cancel your subscription? There's so many other things to play/do with other AT's if you don't like Khelds.

I hate controllers/Doms.. So I don't play them.. Just because I died a billion times with the Dom I rolled doesn't mean I'm going I should cancel my account.

Really you're stating that they lost a customer and here's the reason why. It's valid.. certainly, but you're also showing that you aren't willing to try anything else they've created.

I too feel there's better things to do with your time then spend (and feel proud?) the free 3 months to say how much you hate 1 problem.

Go play the game, try out some of the great new stuff with 3 free months.

Or don't, but then you really discredit yourself and your arguments.

Hey all, i'm having problems figuring out just how I want to IO drain psyche. I've got 5 slots in it as of right now later i'll get the 6th slot..

But what would be best?

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Personally, I'd for a primary that is going to work well with the blapper-friendly nature of */nrg. Boost Range is a bit of an oddball in my opinion, especially when you consider that the best reasons to take */nrg (power boost, bone crusher, and energy punch) are generally wasted whenever you're using a very ranged heavy primary like arch/* and spending a majority of your time at extended range. It's only real use as far as I'm concerned is PvP.

As to what I'd recommend, Fire/* for the sheer huge quantities of blappery death you can dish out and Elec/* for the incredible AoE blapping end draining chaos that will ensue when you start dropping in Power Boosted Short Circuits.

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I've always been interested in trying out a "blapper"

But I've never figured out what I need to do entirely.
Hwo does Fire blast make a good blapping set?
I know fireball has good aoe, and aim is always great. What else is important for a good fire/ blapper?

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Because of the crash-less nuke that comes with it.

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Well I can understand that, but that seems to be the case for any primary.

I don't see the big benefit of power boost in that case.

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I vote for Archery.

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Why archery?

Or why fire at all.. It doesn't seem like anything but boost range synergizes well with it.

Never mind.. Just noticed someone posted the exact same question as me a few posts down.. hahah.

Yay for reading..

So I'm considering making a /energy blaster, but trying to figure out what primary I'll get the best synergy using power boost, boost range etc.

I was considering doing sonic, but power boost doesn't affect the -res correct?

Boost range seems to have a huge synergy with anything with a snipe for that huge base 240' range you can achieve.

So if I want to make a blaster that seems to take advantage of both of these effects, which would it be?

I wish we had Rad blasting.. That'd be sweet with power boost.

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Folks, save your fingers the trouble of typing. I put in a rather harsh rebuttal to this "guide", letting the OP know just how disappointed I was in the farce, and it got deleted, probably by a mod. Just move along and forget you ever saw this particular thread.

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They key word to your statement is, "rather harsh"

If you had just given the rebuttal it probably would have stayed.. But I agree this guide doesn't do justice to an electric stalker.

Thanks guys. I knew there was something like that, but my game mechanics isn't as good as some.

Hey TA/A peeps.

How does the defender RoA compare to the blaster RoA in terms of damage? I can't ever figure that stuff out since it's a "pseudo pet" power.

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So the only powers I need from Electric Armor are Phase Shift, Hibernate, Stealth, and Invis Other? And a bunch of wakies?

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The Business of Tanking with a Stalker:

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Oh, so this isn’t actually a guide about Elec Armor, it’s tips on how to be a squishy tank? Why would I want to tank with a powerset that requires me to be Hibernated or Phase Shifted, or dead and waiting until it’s safe to Wakie?

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You forgot to add the, Or play with a team that's rounded out with support because a good tank such as an electric armor stalker needs that.

I've never seen this bind.. I too am curious..

More info to provide in case someone else's idea of Tanking is to be the one more enemies go after:

Brute's Threat Level: 400%
Corruptor: 100%
Dominator: 100%
Mastermind: 200%
Stalker: 200%
Soldier and Widow: 200%

If I understand the threat level's correct (I can't find the posts for it anymore).

A Corruptor would have to do over 4x more damage than the brute to snag agro.

For a Stalker to hold agro they'll need to hold about 2x the damage, which is extremely hard to do as soon as a brute builds fury..

Masterminds throw it off thanks to the pets.

Yet more Mis-Information I'd like to correct:

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Brutes have tanker caps but stalker stats for health, defenses and resists by the way.

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Brutes have Tanker Resist Caps 90%
Stalkers max out at 75% (as do scrappers)

ALL At's in the same Defense softcap (45%), however for MAXIMUM possible defense a Brute/Tanker can get up to 225.05%, a stalker can only attain 200.38%

Max HP (ie Capped):
Tankers 3212.7
Scrapper 2409.5
Brute 3212.7
Stalker 1606.4

Health Regen:
Scrapper/Stalker 3000%
Brute/Tanker 2500%

So Brutes are on par with tankers for their caps, and Stalkers are on par with Scrappers for everything except health which is on par with a capped blaster, controller, defender, dominator, corruptor, or mastermind.

But even at their Base stats, Brutes are never on par with a stalker, only the resistances/defenses gained from armors are on par. Health is still higher on a brute (than even a scrapper)

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Limits

Because you reference Dark Melee numerous times previously, with some confusing oddball remarks that didn't make much sense (as pointed out previously)

As well as stated how a dark/electric can tank AV's which is largely going to be because of Siphon Life giving back HP, while debuffing to-hit. None of the other Primaries (except nin blade) are going to really help /electric when it comes to tanking av's or whatever.

Once again I'd argue whatever you're doing is NOT tanking, because i'd be willing to bet that as soon as the brutes and masterminds go in and start doing damage the agro goes away.

You were a meat shield, which is a big difference.

But it appears our definitions of tanking are substantially different.

Yours means taking damage and soaking an alpha, and having outside support to be sustained

Mine means taking damage, soaking an alpha, controlling agro to the team, and having a generally self sustainable health if the fight is drawn out. Any outside support for me just makes me even better at what I do.

Later on you elude to the Awakens being generally for you to give to your team when they face plant. 2 for yourself and 2 for other people. That's great, but unless you've agro'd too many groups or things have gotten seriously out of hand a good TANK is going to keep the agro to themselves.

And yes Presence pulls agro blah blah blah. That doesn't somehow make /elec a "better" tanking stalker set than /nin or /sr or /ea or /dark or /wp..

My Thugs/pain can tank, heck all my MM's can just by sending their minions in before the rest of the team.

My Db/Stone Brute can tank.

My elec/electric brute generally can't. Relying on powersurge is nice on an AV or whatever situation but not the way I approach every group. Anything witha DoT destroys the electric armor brute, whom has MORE hp than the stalker.

Hence why I am posting here. Anyone in the unknown about /elec armor deserves to at least understand that it's not as tanky as you make it out to be, as /elec makes even a brute rather squishy..

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Anyway.. If you're happy with your tanking stalker, go for it, to each their own. I'm just giving fair warning out there to people that a Stalker is not a good tank replacement.

The guide needs clarification since players new to the game or electric armor may not understand that while the resistance of electric means you can take the most beating, it has no built in chances to dodge, or ways to recover from the beating it's taking which will make your scrapper feel much more squishy compared to some of the other secondaries.

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Defense sets usually get suggested. Stalkers possess the lowest health among those that the sets are available. To counteract this disadvantage, stalkers have the highest stealth cap in PvE or PvP. To summarize a portion of the guide, I first recommend Dark Melee for PvE and Spines for PvP.

Assassin Strike, Hide, and to some point Placate are fundamental aspects of stalkers. In my guide, I also suggest Ninjitsu. It is an awesome set unique to stalkers only. For PvE and in balance with brutes, stalkers can act partially like brutes or tanks without taking as much aggro. In my opinion, Ninjitsu, Dark Armor, and Electric Armor perform best in that area.

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And to not expect electric armor to be an awesome set for a stalker, as there are definitely better choices that are more self reliant.

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Any set can be soloed with. Using escape abilities is vital to surviving in several scenarios. Power Sink and Power Surge are the only two directly offensive abilities in the set. Of the two, Power Surge is the only one in Electric Armor that allows a form of escape. Also, it's pre-emptive nature requires a bit of planning. It has a built-in stun to buy time against almost anything.

If Electric Armor does one thing well, it would be to "buy time efficiently." Many sets do it well in various ways. Electric Armor covers every need, yet fails to recover what it loses in health. It's a set that returns the focus back to the primary because it excels at that from endurance to damage.

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Ok I said I wouldn't come back to this thread to myself, but here I am.

And the only thing I've got to say to your last statement is:
If you're saying Electric Armor is better because of Dark Melee (which seems to be the point) you should be calling this a DA/Elec guide and go into more detail about the two synergizing together as well as the typical run down of powers that are the usual mainstay of guides.

Anyway.. If you're happy with your tanking stalker, go for it, to each their own. I'm just giving fair warning out there to people that a Stalker is not a good tank replacement.

The guide needs clarification since players new to the game or electric armor may not understand that while the resistance of electric means you can take the most beating, it has no built in chances to dodge, or ways to recover from the beating it's taking which will make your scrapper feel much more squishy compared to some of the other secondaries.

And to not expect electric armor to be an awesome set for a stalker, as there are definitely better choices that are more self reliant.

I meant stalker in my post, I had a brainfart and said scrapper.

I ran the Mids numbers with a stalker, I know there is no Electric armor for scraps.

And yes I do know a scrap that can reach the 75% resist cap.. It's called an invulnerable scrapper. It doesn't need tough or actually any resist slots in any powers (just take them) to achieve it.. Assuming you use unstoppable, which to me is the same as achieving the resist cap with power surge.

I still don't see the benefit to electric armor. You've now stated that you need people healing you and such to tank. That's fine, but why wouldn't the other stalker secondaries (specifically the ones that can avoid damage or heal themselves) be better suited for the job?

Frankly it boils down to I don't understand what the point of the guide is maybe. If I wanted to tank villain side as a melee class, I'd pick a brute (due to more hp), and think that making a stalker pick things from the presence pool, and not making the most use out of things like placate really hurts the stalker. And further electric armor doesn't in any way seem to be better at being a "tanker" if that's what your going for, than any other set.

The heal in DA makes up for the resistance difference while providing toxic damage

Energy Armor is only not as effective against psi (no defense to it), however it has a small self heal

Nin.. Well it's just awesome and has a self heal, no resistance, but avoiding damage all together with a T9 with only an endurance crash is easier to deal with.

Regen - Fantastic T9 taking away the alpha. enough regen can make the heals up often enough. DP kinda sucks since the stalker cap is so low (1606)

Super Reflexes - lacks a heal, but at least you dodge enough to more easily get off aid self, even better with dark melee

Willpower - mix of res/def/and regen.

Each one of the above seems like it'd be better at "tanking" for a team if that's what your going for.

Still it seems like a non issue, since I don't understand why anyone would build a stalker that way. And it's still certainly not a big selling point on electric armor for a stalker.

If you want to be a melee tank villain side you should go for a brute who's base hp are just shy of the stalker cap (1499 of the 1606 cap for a stalker) which I'm not sure what the cap is, but I can get up to 3107 hp without adding IO's and still not be capped. That's a HUGE difference in survivability.

Also while I'm on the topic of questioning your guide.. What does this mean:

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you might really consider Dark Melee. Nothing beats it for beating a brute or tanker at tanking in my opinion, except that they steal aggro.

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Doesn't that mean that everything a brute or tanker has beats dark melee for tanking since they steal aggro?

You've lost me here..

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The oranges do better over all for a resist set. I personally think one should emphasis strengths and downplay weaknesses. I have though in moments of madness with no other inspirations available used like 8 or more purple defense inspirations when I was the only character left during a team wipe. I would survive for some odd reason and then pass out Revives to other team mates. That's another reason I like Electric Armor!

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Do you understand the difference between orange and purple?
Orange gives you more resistance. While orange is good at capping your resistance and making your damage tick away slower, it does nothing to keep the attacks from coming in.

Purple increases your change (which is 50% base for an even con) of avoiding an attack. it's no suprise that popping 8 purples would allow you to survive. You soft capped your defense with like 3 and wasted 5 more. so you've given your character a 95% chance of avoiding damage. That once again shows NOTHING that makes /elec good instead showing why a toon with soft capped defenses is a good thing. All /elec is doing for you with soft capped defense is reducing the blow you'll receive from the 5% that does make it through. Most of the mitigation with 8 purples popped is coming from the purples themselves.

I'd argue the purple inspirations have a better effect for a resist base set since it gives the resist base set some more opportunities to just flat out avoid the attack (less taxing on the armors).

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The extras are for team mates who die as an act of courtesy. I usually need only 1 or 2 for myself if I happen to be in the act of combat while Power Surge drops.

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Well the guide seems to state you will die, so you need these. So you may want to clarify that, although Is till don't agree with planning for it. Once again that proves that /elec scrap is not a good tank.

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You don't even mention much about the powers about what's good or bad.

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Sorry, I have no desire to do a "Mid's Build."

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I didn't ask for a mids build, I specifically stated that your guide for going through elec armor didn't mention any pro's and cons of any powers.

For instance. Grounded. Is it needed? Or would you be more likely to just take combat jumping? Or the fact that gounded doesn't function right when fighting on a hill/slope. Conserve power and Power sink, do you need both to be effective?

Power Surge, most people don't like the final Armors that give a massive boost to whatever but then drops you to 1hp and 0 end. So it it necessary to be a "good" stalker?


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Those were PvE references to Dark Armor. Notice I don't mention " detoggling" in the guide. As for Perception, I did mention Tactics. While not the focus of this guide, Dark Armor has its own version.

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Arguably anything you mention in the thread is part of your guide. Most people will read the whole thing.

The comment in post number 3 about "detoggling" is trying to explain the "Dark armor is hard to line up assasin strike"
But not clear what you're talking about.

Upon reading it 10 times or more, I'm guessing you mean cloak of fear and oppressive gloom make it hard to AS with dark armor. The armor toggles themselves do not. However based on your guide and your statements it seems to be eluding to turning off toggles to better line up an assassin strike, which really doesn't make sense PvE without a CLEAR explanation.

I think for a guide about electric armor you reference dark armor WAY too much. If truly you mean turning off CoF/OG needing to be turned off, I fail to see what that has to do with Electric armor as it doesn't have anything close to an aura of that type.

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Yes, they can. Just because you haven't done it successfully doesn't mean all can't. On my Dark Melee / Electric Armor stalker, I have successfully tanked Positron twice, Lord Recluse once, Scorpion once, and Sister Psyche once all as heroes or arch-villains. Among all those, I have casually taken alpha strikes on numerous occasions and soloed many elite bosses.

I know... "Screenshots, or it didn't happen...". There are a few stories of Dark Armor stalkers doing similar with Electric Melee / Dark Armor. And Electric Melee is suppose to be the big "flavor of the moment" set for issue 14. Too bad there is so much power levelling I suppose. Also in that respect, I'm not sure how Dark Armor survives for tanking arch-villains or heroes.

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DA has the benefit of a self heal which makes a big difference when it comes to survivability. When it comes to tanking, you CAN tank, but it doesn't make you good at it. Soloing an EB also is a big difference than "tanking." EB's are much more manageable than an AV first of, and second when you're solo you are the only thing drawing agro therefore you aren't tanking. And things like placate become more useful.

Dark Melee has the benefit of a heal as well as to-hit debuffs which add a return of life as well as a defense component. This does not reflect electric armor on it's own. While there are certain sets (katana) that can add defense buffs I'd like to see an electric armor "tank" with claws, energy melee, etc. Unless your definition of tank is suck and go down immediately (I tanked that test?).

Now, as a stalker *edited* if you took every shield offered (charged armor, conductive shield, static shield, tough, and grounded) to you and 6 slotted them with level 50 resistance IO's you can make some pretty impressive numbers (64% S/l, 45% f/c, 75% energy, 38%neg, and 45%psi). But most people aren't going to do that. everything drops by about 5% on normal slotting (more if you slot less than level 50)

On top of that you've got 1204 HP at level 50 without any +hp stuff. That's not nearly enough HP to be a good tank.

So can you tank? Yes. Are you good at it? Not really. You'll go down relatively quick, and you won't hold agro on most teams.

A corruptor putting out lots of damage will pull your agro. A mastermind will pull your ago, a brute will pull your agro. You can tank the alpha strike by being the first attacker, but there's a pretty solid chance you're not going to survive the encounter. Unless you've got your tray full of insp, but then anything can "tank" with the right insp. This doesn't put Elec better than any other.

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Challenge from the Presence pool will out-aggro mastermind pets. Further more in PvP or arch-villain hunting, a few "tanker-mind" builds use it for that reason. I somehow did it without that power. What happens without the Presence pool is that aggro will slowly peel off to other team mates, a very important part if no one heals. The purpose of leading with Assassin Strike then following with Water Spout is because of lower stalker health. For the sake of argument, I can do those two powers alone in a normal "relentless" enemy spawn mixed with bosses, lieutenants, and minions on a full 8 person team by myself. Without the need to Hibernate or Power Surge and just using Dark Melee's "single target" strength, I can wipe out several enemy spawns in a row while the rest of the entire team focuses busily somewhere else.

It's best to not use Challenge or Provoke if no heal assistance exists since a stalker doesn't qualify as well against tanking builds of the other archetypes. In this, I will agree. When it comes to a comparison, brutes, tankers, and even masterminds do the job in a style both a little easier and better. How ever, a stalker specifically built with a focus in tanking still can out-perform others who are not shaped towards that concept. Even then, defeating alpha strikes may often be the only requirement for success.

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Challenge will pull agro from anything (even tanks) for a short duration. I'm well aware of "tankerminding."

While your guide with the addition of water spout and hibernate add tactics to use WITH electric armor, it really doesn't say much for electric armor itself as being a good set.
I mean Shadow Meld can almost cap defenses, making electric armor tank. etc etc.

The fact is, stating that electric armor is a viable tank for a stalker is misleading to someone who doesn't know better, and needs to be warned that you'll be a better more viable "tank" with a defense based set, or at the very least something with a heal.

Also.. a resist based stalker cannot tank.
Defense based have a bonus of chances to not get hit (avoiding the alpha completely). Resist combined with low hit points = dead stalker.

Also.. Mastermind pets have higher agro numbers than the stalker..

I have no idea what's going on in this guide and the post talking specifically about Dark Armor just helps take any merits of this guide away.

What Primary:
Get Phase shift?

WTF?? Does that have to do with the primary?
How about.. Katana works well with Electric armor because Divine Avalanche has a +def bonus to melee which will help increase your survivability, especially with Elec armor.

How about Dark, because of the -tohit gives some extra defense while having synergy with siphon life since /elec has no heal.

I'm sure there's more explanation that can be put into this.

How is elec, the hardest and easiest? I can't figure out how it would be the easiest.

How about this advice? It's not good.

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First thing to do is to carry at least four Revive inspirations, and maybe 1 to 2 Free Will inspirations. They look light blue and purple. Not the defensive ones with a shield. Give those away!

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OK.. If you use an awaken when surrounded you're gonna hit the pavement quick with no break frees. There's no such thing as recovering quick without break frees. You'll need to hit some catch a breaths and respites to get back up to speed quick. Remember you've got no self heal in /elec armor, therefore when you face plant you're going to need extra time to get back to going.

Give away the purple shields?! ARe you kidding!? If you want to go back into hide the purps will make a huge difference. If you want to stick it out and scrap it out in combat, the purps will keep you alive.

I'm sorry.. But building with the plan of holding 4 awakens in your tray is a waste of 4 insp slots.

You don't even mention much about the powers about what's good or bad.

I don't even begin to understand the toggle dropping for pvp. Somehow the aura's will make you more noticeable? Without perception have you fought a stalker in pvp? Unless they get hit by your damage aura, you tend not to see them coming.

Sorry.. This guide needs lots of work..

*edit*
Retracting my comments due to noticing this is a necro post..

A regen issue that was brought up as a wishlist/balance issue would be to add -rech resistance to a regen.

Regen relies on recharge to stay alive, just as SR relies on def to stay alive, and WP relies on regen.

SR has def debuff resist, Will Power has -regen resist.

But sadly Regen can take a nasty hit when hit with -rech