Katie V

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by seether28 View Post
    Edit: Hmm, for some reason I thought things like Jump Pack and Shadowy Presence were classed as temp powers.
    They are. The only inherent that can't be slotted is your AT inherent.

    Incidentally, there's also a selectable power that can't be slotted: Swap Ammo from the Dual Pistols powerset.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psylenz View Post
    With the announcement that all four fitness powers will unlock as inherents in the first two levels, I was wondering what the fallout would be to the defender community. The first thing that popped to my mind was that kinetics would not have to pre-plan respecs once they got in range of transference.?
    Why would they respec? If you can wait for Stamina at 20, surely you can wait for Transference at 26 -- and besides, if you're spending your time on large teams, the Vigilance discount means you usually don't have endurance problems even with neither.
  3. The big change on my Stone/Fire tank will be to move the Fighting pool much earlier in the build. With the three power picks, I think I'll take
    1) Salt Crystals (wide-area aggro grab)
    2) Fossilize (ranged single-target attack)
    3) Whirlwind (for the lulz)

    Can you run Whirlwind and Granite at the same time?
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Desi_Nova View Post
    My Claws/Regen Scrapper Ariana LaViuda's name came about when I ran Black Widow spider through Babelfish, which came out AraƱa de la viuda negra.
    I'd never use Babblefish to give me a character name. There's too much risk of getting a name that doesn't mean quite what you think it does.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    - One of my first characters, an Elec/Elec blaster. Feminized Thor to Therra, wanted an "electric-related" last name... so Arcson.
    Slight nitpick: if you're feminizing the first name because the character is female, then the last name should be "Arcsdottir".
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Texarkana View Post
    For controllers, it's not until 32 when you get the pet, not that you asked ( ' ;
    Plant gets awesome at 26, when you pick up Carrion Creepers.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mageman View Post
    Although waiting till level 2 for the heal from /storm isn't a big deal, the level 1 power really sucks and has been gathering dust since I got the heal.
    Slot it for accuracy and endurance, and have fun throwing enemies all over the map. Your bots don't have any trouble hitting a target in mid-air.
  8. It really depends on the character.

    Mages, mystics, and nonhumans can use random names, so I'll pull up a random name generator and look for one that a) sounds good, b) is available, and c) doesn't get very many Google hits.

    Natural characters (martial artists and the like) can use real-world names. I'll look at a list of common names for the culture in question, and pick one that sounds good and doesn't have any embarassing Google hits on the first few pages of results.

    Other characters are harder. I'll usually have a "working name" in mind while figuring out the character concept -- and odds are, it's already taken. If it's based around something like history, mythology, or geography, I'll bring up the working name in Wikipedia and spend a few hours wandering around looking for a name I like. If it's an adjective-noun name, I'll use a thesarus instead.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doctor Delirium View Post
    OK I swapped out my PS/2 keyboard with one that has a dedicated USB connection, and none of the issues that I had with the PS/2 keyboard are present.

    So it looks like Windows 7 really doesn't like PS/2 keyboards.
    It could be the guts of the keyboard rather than the wire connecting it to the computer.

    Most modern keyboards don't have a dedicated switch+wires for each key. Rather, they've got a grid of wires with a key connected to each intersection, and figure out which keys have been pressed by which grid wires are active. This saves money, but means that certain combinations of three or more keys being pressed at the same time will cause phantom keypresses, or prevent key releases from being detected.

    This shows up mostly in games, where you're likely to press many keys at once. It's possible that by switching keyboards, you've got one with a different grid layout, where your normal keymashing doesn't cause problems with the Shift key.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by RiverOcean View Post
    Bots/Traps or Thugs/Traps are pretty synergistic. Bot/Traps is a classic and the added defense from the bots (they force field you) and the FF Generator is nice. Go with Black Scorpion (or Ice Mastery) and you can easily have close to 30% to def to everything but Psi.
    Scorpion Shield is good if you want to stick with SOs or common IOs. If you're willing to slot a few sets, you can softcap to all three positions (or to S/L/E/N/F/C, if you prefer) without touching Scorpion Shield.
  11. Yes, you can have two tornados out at once. I tested it just yesterday to make sure.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jetpack View Post
    Be curious to see how Inherent Stamina at 1 02 (Castle didn't recall which) affects things.
    I expect the main change will be a massively increased demand for level 15 common endurance mod IOs.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hockeypuckhead View Post
    I just started leveling in the rogue area but I think I already screwed up choices. I have my kin heal and took subdue and psionic lance instead of siphon power or siphon speed.
    Assuming from your comment that you're level 5 or so, you haven't made any big mistakes. Kinetics is a very forgiving primary when it comes to builds, since you can skip both a travel power and the Fitness pool. Looking at kin/psi and based on my experience with a kin/ice, I'd pick powers to 20 in the following order:

    1) Transfusion
    1) Mental Blast
    2) Subdue
    4) Psionic Lance
    6) Siphon Speed (it's your travel power until level 18)
    8) Siphon Power
    10) Psychic Scream
    12) Speed Boost
    14) Increase Density or a pool power of your choice
    16) Telekinetic Blast or a pool power of your choice
    18) Inertial Reduction (your new travel power)
    20) Will Domination or a pool power of your choice

    Good pool powers for a Kinetics are things like Hasten, Recall Friend, and the Leadership pool.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by jose2390 View Post
    Think I gotta add end reducers to my attacks.
    This should be your first step. It will do more to solve endurance problems than everything else combined.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by gameboy1234 View Post
    Note the OP is talking about low levels. Try those mishes at +0x1, with one Protector Bot, and tell me how it is.
    Tried it with a few level 14 misisons. It's slow, but fairly safe (the only trouble spot was when an ambush arrived while I was fighting two +1 Vahz groups). I expect things would have gone faster if I'd had three underslotted personal attacks, rather than one underslotted personal attack and two useless powers (Battle Drones and Acid Mortar).
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon View Post
    I know you can have multiple lightning storms out, but I thought that casting a second Tornado would cancel the first one. Not sure tho.

    Lewis
    My plant/storm controller has two out on a regular basis.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by gameboy1234 View Post
    This is what I think. Skipping pets on a mastermind is like making a Blaster and then skipping all those annoying attack powers.

    First tier pets at low levels do about 50% of your damage. There's two of them, each does about what your own attacks do, and there's only one of your Tier 2 pets. Plus, as mentioned, they provide 50% of your Bodyguard mode.

    How would you like to take a Brute or Blaster, and then say "I'm going to reduce my damage by 50%, and reduce survivability (hit points, defense, whatever.) by 50% too."
    Just for the heck of it, I tested this. I ran a few tip missions at +0/x5 on my bots/traps/mu mastermind using only my Protector Bots and Assault Bot. General observations:

    * Without the Battle Drones out, I don't need to run Tactics. Endurance management becomes significantly easier.
    * Fights are slower, so Triage Beacon is up almost every fight, and I usually have double-stacked Acid Mortar, Caltrops, and Poison Trap.
    * There's no real change in survivability. This is not surprising: three pets are equivalent to 60% resistance, while six pets are equivalent to 75%. Either way, I'm at 40% defense.
    * There are far fewer fights where the bots aggro two spawns at once.
    * There's a lot less stuff flying downrange. I don't like it.
  18. There's a way to find out: go to Steffard's location. If you can see him, you're fine. If you can't, you aren't.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Local_Man View Post
    You forgot that Phanty spawns his own decoy. That makes ten pets.
    For an Illusion/Storm/Leviathan, I make it 13:
    3 Phantom Army
    1 Spectral Terror
    1 Phantasm
    1 Phantasm Decoy
    And, given perma-PA levels of recharge
    2 Tornado
    3 Lightning Storm
    1 Waterspout
    1 Coralax
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by OneWhoBinds View Post
    Snow Storm - Not the most useful power. Can be good to help keep things in the rain, and grounding fliers, but not essential. Take it if you can work it in, but don't feel too worried if you can't.
    I'd describe it rather differently:

    Snow Storm - One of your more useful powers. It's good at keeping things clumped up for AoEs, but most importantly, it's got a 50% recharge debuff. Anyone caught in the storm will only be able to attack you half as often, greatly reducing incoming damage. Stacked with Freezing Rain's 40% recharge debuff, it'll eliminate almost all attacks. Take it as soon as you can work it in.
  21. Katie V

    Ambushes - FFS

    I did the last mission of Dark Watcher's arc in the Rikti War Zone last night, and I was facing non-stop ambushes from the moment I attacked the first portal generator, to about five minutes after the "Mission Complete" fanfare. Since I was on a level 50 katana/elec scrapper, this wasn't very difficult to deal with, but I did find it a bit odd.
  22. When I'm on a team in a cave or other tight map, I'll often only summon my Protector Bots and Assault Bot. There's still plenty of firepower going downrange, and survival isn't really an issue.
  23. Seven and a half hours from /petition to email. The disturbing thing was that the timestamps on the email showed that the GM responded only eight minutes after the request entered the support queue -- the delay was in getting the petition from Virtue to the support queue.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Roderick View Post
    Without GR you can't enter the Loyalty Lounges. If you can't enter the LLs, you can neither convert nor spend Alignment Merits.
    Not true. Fort Trident came out on Monday. Going Rogue: Complete Collection became available for purchase on Tuesday. On Monday evening, I spent a few minutes exploring Fort Trident on one of my scrappers.