Katten
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Quote:This, I saw this posted about 10 minutes after it was up, and was actually afraid to say anything. Thought either this is a joke, or defenses are the least of the worries.Originally Posted by Umbral
Or you could just realize that the OP is pulling your leg because he's only got a single attack that's actually slotted for damage. Everything else is fully slotted for the secondary effects of the power, which is obviously facepalm.
At this point I still don't know how to approach this without trying to come up with an entire build and post tons of information along with it, if I did that I seriously feel like someone would comeout saying "april fools" after I'd wasted about a 25 minutes.
Quick advice, don't worry about sets, get the basics down first (attacks with dam/acc/rech slotting, defenses with def/res/end/heal (whatever is supposed to be enhanced slotting) and only to ED cap). With just those basics down you'd be a good bit farther towards your goal than you are atm, work with sets from a more solid base. -
Quote:I like the way you think.Originally Posted by Starflier
Crane Kick decked out with one of the IO knockback sets for a finishing move: sends the ******* flying across the map.
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I just had a chance to mid's up your build Chaos, and I agree that defense is very important, since you're approaching the soft cap I can see why you might be straining to get that last bit of defense in. The global recharge seems to be allowing ripper to make it less painful to go without impale. It had sent alarm bells off since Pre-IO's I was incabable of imagining life with natural recharge without impale, since it is already painfully slow if the three attacks don't kill what i'm attacking.
As a personal preference I would take impale in use with FA in order to take advantage of the burn patch (unfortunately the slows are only enough to make it do about 1/4-1/3 damage to enemies surrounding you, not to use against a single target)
The only powers I can see you have that are slightly skippable are maneuvers, consume, impale, arguably physical perfection (since you have high global recharge, consume and conserve power)
Seems I'd been a bit hasty considering I hadn't checked out why you made the choice and that you'd on several occasions predicted someone would start a fuss over it like I did. -
Hahaha, this thread is a Success!
(Goes back to pretending he's a fire imp, whispering commands to players in game) -
First off, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...=spines%2Ffire
That thread supplies good builds and good advice in exact response to your question (unlike this thread which has highly questionable advice, with perfectly reasonable advice sprinkled in just to make it more confusing.)
Slotting slows in attacks in unnecessary, it only decreases move speed, quills is the only power worth slotting a little slow in. *edit* it looks like, in a later post Je Saist said he was just getting recovery bonuses, so those slows are likely the end/rech of the slow sets.
Absolutely do not skip impale, I rarely dispute something directly, but not taking impale Would be a very bad choice because
A.) It allows you to give livable ST damage and gives you the capability to take down bosses
B.) It allows you to leverage burn, drastically increasing your single target DPS
C.) It is ranged, High damage, Immobilizing attack. (I mean, seriously)
It WILL gimp you if you don't take it.
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I would assume there are some gameplay issues at hand as well, despite a little bit of odd slotting your build should be able to handle what you're fighting. My playstyle that has success (purely SO's) running 8/+1 runs a little like this
1.) Get a spawns attention using some sort of ranged attack or myself if I'm inspd up
2.) Drag said spawn around corner to pile them up
3.) Heal.
4.) BU+FE+Throw spines+Spine Burst, Burn
5.) Back off, heal, pick off stragglers, or repeat.
Start at 8/+0 instead of 5/+1 it'll cater to spines/fire better (number of targets doesn't matter, all dies in the opening salvo, it's what survives that's gonna cause you trouble) That'll also land you more inspirations, more xp, and more rewards in general faster.
You'll get the hang of living on inspirations and healing flames while delivering mind boggling AoE soon enough, then it's probably time to kick it up to 8/+1 until you're IO'd out. -
Wow, hahah luddites, that's great. Don't luddites specifically shun industry and technology?
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Red Tomax is correct by practice, the hold shows up as a somewhat rare animation (the enemy grasps their heads) it's kind of like when a carnie dies, and the hold is barely longer than that animation. (in fact it actually seems a little like the vomit animation hold as far as that's concerned).
As for the debuff, it's rather easy to expect all the mobs in the spawn to stay on the patch, especially since they're slowed and falling down. I use it whenever the tank isn't jumping in quickly enough and it's recharged, after you've slotted a tohit debuff enhancement you're pretty near soft capped to all the enemies in the area, and the -defense is incredible, everyone on your team hits with all of their alpha. In gameplay it looks like their res has been debuffed they drop so fast.
The knockdown effect seems to happen at about 1/2 the reliability of earthquake. -
That sweet, sweet Divine Avalanch, I always forget about you. That'd be some pretty crazy burst damage as well on the FE+BU sword t9's.
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These guys are dropping mutant origin SO's, am I right?
This should be natural instead I would believe. -
The power doesn't work right, I would be fine if this was a hugely damaging power like it should be (to be worth death and at cost of something like shield charge or a t9) (fire is supposed to be 'the' damage set).
So why not
1.)Make the damage up front
2.)Make the DoT Stick to the enemy as if they were on fire
3.)Get rid of the massive friggen crazy KB That makes teams hate you and makes it incredibly rare to get more than 1/3 damage that also spreads out enemies so you cant take advantage of the invincible 10 seconds thats unique to the power to take revenge.
Of course I like KB for visual appearance, so top 2 choices would be preferable. So what's the deal yo, there's only a brief stun associated with the power as far as debuffs go, Fallout is still top dog of the corpsesplosion business like it should be.
How does anyone else feel?
Also are there any min/maxers out there who can find a reason to take FA ? Or is it just considered underpowered and not worth the trouble. -
Another nod to Fire/Regen, Anything/WP Really nothing's ever going to slow you up, and you have the boss killing ability necessary. You just want to GET to 50 so end game IO'ing isn't all that important. Those play very smoothly, Farm style area builds usually require time and money to surpass something like Fire, because taking down a high level boss and several medium sized spawns, and reaching mission bonuses and story arc bonuses quickly are the ways to level fast solo.
willpower scales up better than regen, regen gets quick recovery at level 8 and click heals. You'd likely level up faster and enjoy it a lot more if you teamed, then just pick whatever.
Likely candidate also, Dark/Shields when Shields first came out that seemed to be the only set with absolutely perfect synergy, I figure siphon life would get you over the hump dealing with shields un IO'd defense, but I've never played shields outside of teams really until IO'd up. -
Quote:No S/L Defense, Yes a huge inflow of inspirations.Originally Posted by Chaos_String
Well, firstly, when you kill as fast as spines/fire, inspirations drop very quickly, so that's helpful.
Also, Kinetic Combat set IOs cap at lvl 35, and Reactive Armor at 40, so it's quite feasible to have a substantial amount of S/L/Melee defense from IOs and pools by level 38.
I was running 8/+0 at the beginning but it was too easy, thanks to the inspiration combination system I can continually stream out purple insps from whatever junk I'm given, I usually just use small red's and yellows as soon as I get em to leave room open and speed up the fight unless I lose track and let my tray fill up.
This is no RWZ challenge, I use everything that's dropped and if nothings dropped I charge in, Rise of the Phoenix, get some more inspirations and keep fighting.
(Lastly, only because freaks revive, normally you wipe the whole spawn out before it's an issue)
It also helps to leverage burn, if you can scare the majority of enemies away for even a few more seconds you'll survive long enough to heal again (the Fire self heal is about 2/3 a health bar and up pretty often) Then you just go around a corner (They'll all come back) and you can let loose throw spines and such again.
The reward is definitely worth any debt. -
Quote:Just going to further your point about all sets working somehowOriginally Posted by Werner
Hmmm, maybe. Martial Arts is arguably the weakest primary, but if you pair it with Dark Armor, you get to stack stuns, which might be pretty useful. So that's out. So maybe Martial Arts/Fire Armor? Well, you have a moderate damage mostly single target set. It has some secondary effects, but with nothing to stack them on, they probably won't gel into anything very useful.
Really even MA/FA has some synergy, CAK is an immobilize that you can use to get full damage out of burn. I don't have an MA/FA but impale+burn is a fire and forget I use to knock LTs. quite often. (one application of the combo is enough)
For some reason I notice bosses stay immobilized with even one application of an immob rather than the two required, I'm not entirely sure why but it's more damage for you.
(really, though fire trades mitigation for a self rez hahah, used to firey embrace was the trade off, but with shields in existence now I honestly wouldn't count it) -
2 at most, usually one. I like varying my level of safety and team focus, so usually an AT that shines on teams (Blaster/Defender) and a scrapper.
Honestly though I tend to obsess over whatever current build I'm running until it's about 40-50 (choose to IO or not) and then play an old character, and then reroll a new one. -
On my newest scrappers (spines/fire, 38) I just had two of perhaps the greatest back to back moments I think in my experience solo.
I normally roll at 8/+1, figured both firey embrace and build up were up so I'd herd up the first two spawns in the mission, Soon as the round the corner, I let loose the incredibly deadly AoE Salvo Spines/Fire has had it's disposal (FE+BU+Throw Spines+Spine Burst, burn patch and auras) Of course everyone including the bosses die instantly... BU and FE wear off, and NEARLY EVERYONE FROM BOTH SPAWNS REVIVES, it was absolutely terrifying. Luckily I was able to do the same (RoTP) And return the favor.
Next is more a new trick
If there's a room with only one entrance, lure everyone in, open up on them, then light a burn patch in the doorway and body block them from getting out
(oh, they'll run at you, not to the edges of the room) This gives you the perfect time to /em evillaugh as the terrified mob burns at your feet.
Kinda makes you feel like a hero. -
Quick update, BaB's has just announced that redraw issues have finally found solution.
Assault Rifle isn't going to be included in the first round of weapons without redraw issues, but TA/ Is and the others are definitely around the corner.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...9&postcount=74 (BaBs original post)
Enjoy your future TA/AR. -
Not for the sake of keeping this thread running any longer... but either it served it's purpose or random coincidence is in my requests favor.
I recently rolled a new scrapper and both of my first teams had either a sonic defender (or 2!) It was good times all the time
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I just started one of these spines/fire today... (Was going to go fire/fire, but impale+burn and AoE specialty was too much to resist)
Some people are talking out mitigation... I'm going the route of "RoTP as part of the attack chain" and working from there... at a mere level 16 (quills soon though) the orange numbers already have me hooked.
It doesn't even really matter whether those numbers are big or small as long as there are lots of them and they're all mine. Totally hooked
Purposely embracing this curse, to the winds with shields and it's numerical superiority, this is about FIRE!
Working this path, it's gonna be all about the recharge, more recharge = more BU+FE = More Damage and more Recharge = more healing flames and more RoTP when healing flames didn't cut it.
Epic attack + Impale + Ripper will probably be decent enough single target damage, plan on making as much use of impale immob+burn as possible as well. -
Fairly sure or totally sure it's not a range issue?
the game might be surpressing boost range's effects when you're held. Most AR/EM would have that on Auto so it could be that. -
Is it at all possible to record some segment of these fights and upload? I've seen scrappers solo plenty of AV's, but the defender/corruptor AV/GM Soloers have tended to use pictures. I know the file size is very large sometimes on tough fights, so even a small snippet of the flow of the fight would be very interesting.
Also, congrats on your first GM, very impressive. Makes me want to try a Traps/Son out and believe that's sign of a job well done. (the overlapped triage beacons actually look awesome) -
Quote:Don't know if someone responded to the second part of that yet, grant cover has a reduced toggle cost, at .16e/s slight end red slotting will get it to be negligible drain. My BS/SD never felt the difference between that being on and off.Originally Posted by Sailboat
Grant Cover is a toggle, and needs to be running in order to give you that level of defense debuff resistance, right? It's not like a set bonus, I assume, where the power can be turned off. So I would need to slot it up, for defense (to get the ddr % higher) and probably also for some end reduction?
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Does your mouse have 5 buttons? Using mouse 4 and 5 bound to the powers via the regular control options (Tray powers 9 and 10) has given me very little hard ship, just click on each teammates name to target and cycle through.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I have 2 sonics and rarely play either, mostly for the reasons mentioned previously. The endurance usage is just extreme, the anti-mezz power is largely redundant with the big bubble, the +resistance doesn't aid with dodging secondary effects of powers, intangibility is intangibility, Liquefy takes too long to recharge, and the donut of death is useless solo. It's not a terrible set but I always feel like it's 3/4ths as good as the others.
(on vacation, out of regular internet range)
I'd disagree with a few things here though. (This is guide like and responsive to others as well, so it's not just a rebuttal.)
On all my teams since I've had SO's, there is hardly ever a death, people will speak of the defense thing forever (myself on occasions as well.) But in practice it simply works. The combination of the rings causing enemies to die faster, and the bubbles allowing teammates to use their own defenses in time to save themselves (reliably) means there are not issues. Also, the only thing to stack on the very, very commonly capped or high defense is +res, which turns the 'almost always invincible' into unkillable gods.
As for the secondary effects, it's almost a total non-issue. The reason force bubbles are so good is that they protect from debuffs? Nobody cares if they've been debuffed on my teams, I've never even noticed any -res outside of new content (longbow/arachnos/vanguard) so -defense, I laugh at -defense. Also, slows are usually autohit. And clarity is the filler for anything else that goes through.
Next, sonic cage, I know there are probably better options, but this is unique and is quite usable. It's MAG is 5.6 meaning you can take any boss out of any fight, and it activates almost instantly which can be a life saver.
by myself i use it to save the boss til the minions are dead, on teams I will often cage one of 3 bosses in 3 boss spawns, by the time two are down the third is already taking damage, and hasn't harmed a fly.
Finally the visuals. A few people talked about motion sickness due to dispersion... the color you want is dark gray, it's the one that's nearly invisible (but wow... if that gives you motion sickness there are other issues). The rest of the powers respond to colorization in vibrant interesting ways, and allow you to make visible powers that are less understood (disruption/sonic cage for example I have as bright red). That's more a boon to teams than you think.
For individual bubbles, choosing black/red for one and red/black for the other will give a glow rather than ripple effect, or for increased ripple choosing black/black(dark) white/white(bright) gives a mesmerizing zebra stripe ripple effect.
In the end what makes sonic's worth playing now (hero side at least) is the current state of the game. Everyone has defense, the only way to get better than the cap is to go with +res. There are tons of kins, the only to get past the damage cap is to provide -res, which sonics provide more efficiently than any other.
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As for thermals .... thermals aren't defenders, so it's totally invalid in this section of the forum.
other than that, they are the jack of all trades, not Sonics, it's odd how people play it off as that. We provide top -res/+res they provide heals and buffs worse than an empathy, shields worse than sonic, and debuffs on a longer recharge and with lower numbers than cold doms. They just get it all, they're the ones that I could never pick due to "but it seems like 3/4 do it better". -
If you're going TA/ rather than AR how about Archery? It's fun to just shoot loads of arrows into your enemies, wouldn't be nearly as frusterating as pulling out a new weapon every attack.
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Mine's getting lonely.
It seems the majority are not familiar with the rings of death, the donuts of doom, the hula hoop of insanity, the magnificent power that is Disruption Field and that's just sad.
<OmegaHertz Remix 40 Sonic/Sonic, Freem>