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Laevateinn

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  1. Laevateinn
    Not SD. One Ruin Mage earthquake and your entire secondary goes poof, you don't get to use the star power of the set, Shield Charge, and Vahz slows will un-perma your mez protection. And while I haven't tried, after making an exemplar build for my SR I doubt it'd be possible to softcap at level 15 with only 33 levels of powers and slots.

    Fire has stackable toxic res in its heal and a damage aura, so I might consider that.
  2. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ShoeTattoo View Post
    New characters tend to become influence sinks, at least as players IO them out.
    That's not an influence sink, since little influence is destroyed relative to the value of IOs they remove from the market. In particular, large numbers of powerlevelled characters inevitably cause price spikes on the market; I can even tell when a new AE exploit has surfaced just by watching market trends. It's no coincidence that the AE era started a long period of inflation, and that the massive nerf to boss farms in i16 triggered an immediate and dramatic (though brief) period of deflation.
  3. Laevateinn
    I find it interesting that the default assumption is that everyone being able to make influence easily is good. (I don't think it is, and rare IOs being completely out of reach for most players ought to be WAI.)
  4. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Godpants View Post
    Similar statements come up whenever one of these naming threads starts, and I think they're elitist. Fusion_7 at least offered suggestions on how to craft names rather than dismissing those having trouble generating handles for their characters as "not creative enough." The value of a name is subjective, and some players will have a great desire to get a name descriptive of their toon without using obscure synonyms or language tricks.
    A good way of giving such people a taste of their own medicine is to reply that they can only find names because they have low standards.
  5. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eric Nelson View Post
    Is there some significance I'm not aware of to the number 2,147,483,647?
    The maximum value a 32-bit signed integer variable can hold. The implication is that the inf cap is 2bn due to the variable used.
  6. Laevateinn
    Softcapping WP is easy. I can do it on a Scrapper, of course you can do it on a Tanker.

    If cost is an issue, you can swap out the Kin Combat triple for the KD proc instead. Slot some focused smite/crushing impact triples in the remaining 2 slots to bring the enhancement values back up to par. On Tankers, you do not always need ED-capped damage for your weaker attacks. Another cheap trick is to slot your attacks with 4 Mocking Beratements for +2.5 melee def (only works for secondary powerset attacks, not boxing or brawl), although I think this really works best on Brutes.

    As an /Elec you may also consider getting some energy/neg defense. You can slot all your AoE attacks with 3 eradications for a hefty energy defense boost, and eradications are really cheap (all but the proc and quad are in the sub-5m range). You can very feasibly get softcapped S/L/E/N defense.

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  7. Laevateinn
    Neither, really. For me, primary build goals are always recharge and/or defense because for all characters these offer the greatest comparative benefit. +HP, Accuracy and for very few characters +Regen I consider secondary build goals (i.e. after I've got all the rech/def I want). +Dmg, +Res, +End are ancillary benefits that aren't worth specifically slotting for but are nice to have.
  8. Laevateinn
    The cap for non-trial accounts is 2bn.

    There are tricks for storing more influence than that (by placing bids on items in the market UI that don't exist in the game, e.g. level 53 IO recipes), but I consider them too risky to use.
  9. Laevateinn
    You can only have up to 5 of the same named set bonus; the 6th onward provide no additional benefit.

    In Mids' click "View Active Sets" and it highlights in red any set bonuses that are above the cap.
  10. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Umbral View Post
    */Invuln isn't nearly as bad as it used to be since the change to Unyielding. I'm actually considering making my next Tanker an Invuln/Mace because, after playing with the numbers on a few Scrappers and Tankers, I'm really starting to think it could be fun to play and tough to kill.
    Invuln is extremely tough. You can get a build that's softcapped to everything except Psi with 1 enemy in range very easily, capped S/L resistances on top of that and massive heal/+HP. It's a well-respected Tanker primary. I have no idea why it doesn't get as much press on the Scrapper forums, although Nihili proved it was amazing by soloing just about everything in the game last year.
  11. Laevateinn

    FM/WP I give up

    POST-ACTION

    I got you 45% defense while keeping the same recharge and roughly the same or slightly more HP, recovery and regen. Instead of Armageddon in FSC I had to give you Hecatomb in Scorch. No PvPIO.

    Personally, though, I think a good amount of defense to aim for on characters who don't specifically have defense-based sets is 32.5%. This way you can eat a small purple inspiration and softcap your defense; also 1 ally FF/Cold Dom character's shields of any AT (not including their aura) will softcap you. It gives you a much larger amount of build flexibility than a softcapped WP and you can still easily softcap yourself in situations where you really need it. So you can also consider a build that has 32.5% defense to all damage types except Psi.

    If you are going to run Scorch > Incin > Scorch > Cremate and can live without softcapped defense, I'd also suggest dropping GFS. In its place you can take Confront, which is a good Taunt set mule, or PP, which is just all-round good.

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  12. Laevateinn

    BS/SD build help

    POST-ACTION

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GangstaBlade View Post
    But... Just wondering how you managed to kill 200 damage off [B][Head Splitter]?
    I turned off Build Up. Mids' has a bug where if you turn on Build Up with the Gaussian proc in it, it includes the effect of the proc, too.
  13. Laevateinn
    I'm not qualified to comment on the Claws part but IMO, the main advantage of SR over the other softcap-capable powersets is that you can accomplish it without the fighting pool relatively easily. (I skipped it on my SR, too.) So don't feel pressured to take it.

    It's a good build. Personally I would forgo slotting Health entirely, since you already have a self-heal. You can also remove a slot from Practiced Brawler since it's already permanent without Hasten. With the 3 free slots I'd 6-slot performance shifter in Stamina; this tops up your AoE defense and also gets you the +End proc, which is a nice little buff. I would also slot Focus with Positron's Blasts (which is a comparatively cheap set for being rare) for the recharge bonus.
  14. Laevateinn

    BS/SD build help

    POST-ACTION

    Try something like this:

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  15. Laevateinn

    BS/SD build help

    POST-ACTION

    Don't slot True Grit with resistance. The +HP from it benefits you more.

    Parry should be slotted as an attack if possible. It's a good filler attack in an otherwise slow-recharging set and you want good accuracy to ensure it hits.

    Don't 6-slot Crushing Impact. The psi resist bonus is useless since 1) positional defense already works against most Psi attacks and 2) it doesn't mitigate enough damage to save you from nonpositional ones.

    You're above the cap for +5% recharge bonuses. In Mids' click "View Active Sets", and bonuses that violate the rule of 5 will be highlighted in red.

    Fly doesn't need to be 4-slotted. Actually, at level 50 1 common IO in Fly + slotted Swift comes close to the flyspeed cap, if I remember correctly.

    Additional defense IOs in Phalanx Fighting only increase the defense it gives when other characters stand near you. It does not boost the static +3.5% defense that is on at all times, so slotting this power is of fairly limited use.

    Reactive armor defense bonuses are small enough that they only benefit typed defense characters. They're not worth slotting on a shield defense character, who gets positional defense.

    Taking battle agility that late is a bad idea; it's your major source of ranged/AoE defense.

    Generally speaking, I'd try to softcap defense, then work on recharge/accuracy. You want to try and get +45% melee/ranged/AoE defense (a little extra doesn't hurt, either); this is the point at which further defense bonuses no longer reduce enemy chance to hit. Some good places to start are a Steadfast +3 Def in any of your resist powers, a full set of Gaussian's synchronized fire control in Build Up (+2.5 to all positions), and some Blessings of the Zephyr in Fly.
  16. Laevateinn

    /SR help

    POST-ACTION

    +4 enemies will have anywhere from 7% to 9% chance to hit you through softcapped defense depending on rank (AVs have slightly over 10%), and do quite a bit more damage.

    You'll die if a few hits land in rapid succession, but it's doable.
  17. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Westley View Post
    The only way to reverse it is to support "lower population" servers and show people how they can still have fun on those servers and still get a team easily no matter where they are.
    Since finding a team is as easy as you claim, low-population servers need no support.
  18. Laevateinn
    I've never tried to measure it accurately, but back when I ran my investment scheme, the conclusion was each active marketing character makes about 1bn/month. Extrapolating from that, since I'm marketing on 8 characters right now, I ought to be making 8bn/month, or 2bn every week. But that doesn't feel right to me; my own estimate is 4bn-5bn a month.
  19. Laevateinn
    Taking Blaze makes for a very tight build if you actually want to slot all your APP blasts for recharge bonuses, which is one area where Blaze can get better statistics than Body Mastery.

    If you want to take Blaze, I suggest dropping one of your ST attacks to take Combat Jumping. You really only need three attacks for a smooth attack chain. I dropped Cremate in this example.

    This example also uses the debuff HOs to boost defense. You may or may not consider that kosher; you can probably pull slots from Fire Blast to change the toggle slotting to 4x LotGs if not.

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  20. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gearford View Post
    any softcapped invuln... softcapped what?

    resistance + a little defense is more sur... 75% res 25% def, and im really giving you're argument the edge here by capping resist and making defense about as high as its gonna get with IO bonuses, takes roughly 12.5% of incomming damage. that's less survivable, not more, and soft capped def builds are a lot more... possible... than hard capped res builds with 25% def.

    ok, ill ignore SD. first mention of FA is on page 2, someone saying they got spanked in a minute. i guess you can count the DM/inv as a page 1, even if the main things going for inv are invincibility and tough hide. True point that /elec was revised, will have to see like tomorrow or some time im more awake (8:30), im sure they will be there tho, there's exceptions to every rule. problem is you will find 1 or 2 posts in an 11 page thread and be like "see, see I told you, see, har har italics SEE!", never realizing how isolated the incidents you stand behind are.

    so as far as... play more /resist. im waiting for you to roll a stony and claim you still dont see the problem, ill have a good laugh.
    Let's have a recap:

    You said that resistance sets do not have a stat that resists -Res debuffs. Yes, they do, it's called resistance.

    You said that defense sets don't have holes in their mitigation the way resistance sets do. They don't in the sense of being weak to one type of damage, but -Def, enemy +ToHit and autohit attacks effectively give them one.

    You said that defense debuffs are small in number. They aren't, because every two-bit thug has them as a secondary effect of their attacks and individual powers that debuff for large amounts also exist.

    You said that resistance sets don't get to solo pylons, "or in some other way be so rediculous that you actually have to set up your own events to have a challenge". I pointed out that resistance sets can and do solo pylons.

    You said that resistance sets have less "potential" than defense ones. No, they don't. Your example doesn't prove anything; read Desmodos' post above to find out why.

    You made some sarcastic comments, which aren't worth responding to.

    At this point, you've shifted the goalposts so far that I'm no longer certain what your alleged problem with resistance sets is. As best as I can tell, it amounts to resistance sets not dominating the pylon results thread (which is a thread about offensive rather than defensive benchmarking). Feel free to explain how this equates to squishiness of resistance-based sets, because it doesn't.
  21. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gearford View Post
    there are more enemies who can cast a defense debuff, true, but these enemies usually dont stack as large an amount of them by themselves, they also usually arent of good quality.
    Understatement of the year. Every sword or gun attack debuffs defense, and while -7% on each may not sound like a lot, once 4 or 5 minions start stacking attacks on you, you will feel it. Individual defense debuffs of large amounts aren't uncommon, either; Arachnos tarantulas have a -20% one that they like to spam. I'm hard-pressed to name an enemy group that does not debuff defense. And this is on top of other ways that defense can be avoided or stripped away. Enemy +ToHit doesn't destroy resistance powersets the way it does defense ones. So Defense powersets do have big gaping holes in their protection.

    If by "potential" you mean survivability potential, you're wrong. Any softcapped Invuln will prove it. Given the prevalence of ally and self +Def buffs, resistance + a little defense is more survivable than defense + a little resistance. It used to be that only SR could reliably softcap itself. Then, when i13 was launched, there was actually a large discussion on how SR was actually underpowered, because the changes to IO set bonuses meant that people could potentially build softcapped (or at least high-defense) WP and Invuln scrappers, and even "pure" resist sets like /Fire could accumulate large amounts of defense. It's kind of funny how the old myth of defense being superior to resistance has resurfaced.

    I'm going to assume that by your first question you mean this: "When does /ela or/fire get to solo pylons, or in some other way be so rediculous that you actually have to set up your own events to have a challenge?" What's funny is that a /Fire scrapper has soloed pylons (see the pylon results thread), along with Invuln and Regen (I don't remember any /Elec ones, but it's a relatively new set). So I'm not sure what your pylon question proves. It certainly doesn't prove that resistance sets are less durable than defense ones. If you are going to point at the large number of shields builds dominating that thread, I'll remind you that shields is overpowered relative to defense sets, too.

    So, as far as survivability is concerned, I don't see how anyone can claim that all resistance sets have inherently less potential than all defense sets. I do think, though, that the scrapper defense sets can easily achieve a level of mitigation that is sufficient for most normal content, while simultaneously offering perks that are valued by high-end scrapper forum builds (+Rech, +Dmg, AoE damage), and this biases people's perceptions.
  22. Laevateinn

    costumes

    POST-ACTION

    I support this idea. If AE was any clue, the furor and drama this feature would cause would provide quality entertainment for all.
  23. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gearford View Post
    I prefer resist sets over the mixed sets (cept WP, qr stam is just too good) but they dont really hold much (mitigation wise) against the defense supersets, SD and SR.
    By superset, I mean that not only do you get to soft cap (this leaves me scratching my head when I hear we have capped resists because they dont want us to be able to have as much mitigation as a tank), but you get an answer to the only thing out there that can make you vulnerable again.

    When does /ela or/fire get to solo pylons, or in some other way be so rediculous that you actually have to set up your own events to have a challenge?

    even if they removed resist caps, the lack of availiability would make them inferior for mitigation and there still wouldnt be a resist superset, there is no resist debuff resistance stat afaik. So far damage dealing is all resist sets have going on (infinate end or +damage, both with damage auras)

    /rant

    they come pretty even in the "normal" game though, just that there isnt as much potential. cept SR, they get soft capped defense and DDR with SOs
    There is a resist debuff resistance stat. It's called resistance. It even resists -Dmg, which defense sets have no way of achieving.

    I'll just repeat what I said earlier, which is that defense sets suffer from a lot of disadvantages that resistance sets do not. Defense debuffs are vastly more prevalent than resistance debuffs. Defense sets suffer far more from enemy +ToHit and -Def than resistance sets do. Enemy summoned pets that are copies of player ones tend to have 75 base ToHit (instead of normal critter 50%). There are autohit attacks. There are unresistable defense debuffs. Nothing in the game quite ignores resistance (and its built-in -Res debuff resistance) like that.

    I've yet to meet anyone in the "defense > resistance" camp who acknowledges the above points. They go on and on about how they can't dodge debuffs, or how they're capped at less than 90% resistance, and seem to pretend that defense doesn't have an achilles' heel of its own. Sometimes I wonder just how solid their grasp of game mechanics is.
  24. Laevateinn
    Welcome to the game! My first character was also a Blaster (Fire/Fire, the most defenseless one of all) and I died a lot, but death in this game doesn't really have any notable penalties and I had a blast.

    Blasters start off easy and become hard. In the low levels they're hugely powerful, and you'll cruise along smoothly around maybe level 30-35 or so, where most bosses can 2-3 shot you in melee, and mezzes (stuns, holds, sleeps and other things that prevent you from acting) become more prevalent.

    Scrappers are the default suggestion for new players. They're opposite - melee sets take longer to get their heavy-hitting attacks and they're not a whole lot tougher than Blasters early on, but are generally safer once their defenses mature, and they get powers that protect them from mezzes.

    But the game isn't very hard and I would say to just go with whatever archetype you feel like playing, except maybe Tankers (because you will be expected to lead and take point, and they kind of mature slowly).
  25. Laevateinn
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fury Flechette View Post
    But then you'd have to slot that nasty knockback proc. The ranged defense bonus is nice, but I avoid that proc like the plagued. One of the most awful things I've ever seen in game was a fire/kin farmer who had it slotted in flashfire. He'd hit flashfire scatter everything and then try to fire cage the mobs that were scattered over this huge area.
    Screech is single-target, though, so it doesn't cause as much disruption. Have you played with my Rad/Sonic? I actually have 6 Stupefys slotted in mine.