Laevateinn
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Posts
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Joined
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I have no problem with the game catering to introverts. I do have a problem when they demand the same rewards as group content.
Solo trials at a slower (read: easier) pace? No problem, but you'll have to be content with a slower rate of advancement. Leadership, organization, skill and efficiency should be rewarded, and that's only being fair. -
Every time I read a thread like this I feel a bit more reassured that the game is not being completely dumbed down and that incarnate rewards still demand some semblance of effort and skill to achieve which, given the amount of whining from the playerbase, must not have been easy to maintain for the developers.
Rock on, devs! -
Quote:No real conclusion can be drawn from TFs. You may think you're contributing a lot, but it's really the 3 controllers, 2 corruptors and the fire/SS brute doing the heavy lifting.Originally Posted by Demetrios Vasilikos
Just my thoughts on SR and where its true potential exists. BTW easiest way to see if your SR can hold his own. go run a shadow shard tf like sara moore at +4 X8. if your iincarnate crew can get through that ok, then your worthy of the power you wield.
I tell you what. Let's duo a Lambda and solo one area each during the looting phase. We'll see who finishes first and without dying. I'll even let you pick whether you want the warehouse or the labs.
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Although it gets a lot of heals, the key power is actually fortitude, which you want to keep on as many people as you can. Without the defense from fortitude, people die too quickly for heals to save them; the more people are constantly under fort, the better your support power is. Therefore you need recharge, lots of it.
As a rule of thumb an SO build ought to be able to fort 2-3 people, a cheap IO build 4-5, and a top-tier build 6-7. An IO build should also strive to keep Adrenaline boost constantly going on one person.
Empathy doesn't build for defense well since it is slot intensive and does not self-buff defense, resistance or recharge. A related problem is that support emps tend to get hit by a lot of aoe damage, and aoe defense is hard to build for without compromising recharge. You will have to live with being squishy.
I strongly recommend taking Maneuvers. Maneuvers + Fort is almost 29 defense to all, including psi. An SR scrapper with SOs slotted only gets about 31 def to all.
You're not really getting a lot out of power mastery. Total focus is dangerous to use since it has a very long animation and the damage is poor. The only notable power is power build up, which increases the defense given by fort, but you're not taking that. I recommend psi mastery instead, which gives you a good ST hold, Dominate. It's also a very good attack.
This is a cheap (no purple/pvpIO) nearly-permahasten build that ought to be able to fort 5-6 people and keep AB permanent on 1 player. The endmod in AB is to push its recovery over +1000%, which defeats the -1000% endurance debuff that crashing nukes give. There's an endredux in recovery aura because the high casting cost (26 end unslotted) sometimes means you don't have enough end to cast it if you're running low. With this build you should hover far from melee and blast cautiously.
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Quote:This isn't a weakness of defense sets specifically. Characters that rely exclusively on one means of survival, be it controls, defense, heals, resistance or their teammates, are easily crushed.Originally Posted by Madam_Enigma
Well, considering the WWD part 5 end boss ignores capped defense (note, not soft capped but hard capped) like it's not even there.. It makes the arc rather unfair to anyone who relies on defense such as Super Reflexes. Seriously, elude plus popping lucks till I hit the defense cap and he still could hit me with impunity.
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Quote:As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. It used to be that this game was about seven guys cowering behind 1 big guy taking potshots at the enemy, which is not fun, heroic or comic-booky. The age of softcap means that everyone can have fun.Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
And this. Tankers have been getting kicked for a long time. the game/tactics have moved away from them in standard high functioning teams. the incarnate Trials are the worst. The unresistable damage, unavoidable agro rings, etc. The Devs either need to completely look at what they are handing Tank players for an arctype (if they are not gonna tune damage upwards, they need to tune survivable up, and larger taunt caps) and they need to give Tanks an edge in Incarnate Trials, resistance to all the crap that lays low the other archtypes.
Tankers should be removed from the game, and enemy damage rebalanced around scrappers and brutes being the toughest characters. Since that will never happen, you can at least take some comfort in that tankers are now pretty good debuffers with Bruising, and that recent trials now involve a lot of pulling and precision aggro control. -
Yes. If it does no damage on its own (not from IO procs), it doesn't proc interface.
I don't have experience with Ice specifically (I consider it subpar), but it's always worth taking the aoe immobilize. Controllers are very good interface proccers, and with a properly slotted aoe immob can output surprising amounts of damage. You can use it whenever you feel you don't need the mitigation from ice slick, or rely on farsight for mitigation instead. -
Quote:Therefore, -res is not "worth half what a comparable +damage buff would be".Originally Posted by Beauregard
A +95% slotted attack that receives +30% damage would be increased by ~15.3%. The same attack hitting a 30% resistance debuffed target would be increased by 15% after the purple patch.
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Quote:Just to correct a misconception. I ignore the lore of CoX, but that's mainly because it's lame and boring.Originally Posted by DamionRayne
To many people are infact ignoring the prime lore of CoX and or misusing said prime lore because they don't understand it entirely.
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Out of curiosity, I joined the trial mentioned in the OP. It was among the smoothest ones ever: Penelope died after only 3 voids even though we weren't intentionally going for the badge. Almost nobody died to purple patches in phases 1 and 4 because Malaise was dying so fast that he tended to go down after only 1 round of world of anguish.
I have a feeling that much of the stigma against asking for level shifts on trials simply comes down to people wanting others to let their +0 characters tag along for rewards. And yes, while player competence technically matters more than build, player competence in this game is low in general, yours truly included. -
Quote:You sound like one of those forum theorycrafters who write humongous guides and quote statistics left and right, but have no real idea what the numbers mean in practice.Originally Posted by Beauregard
The purple patch will halve the effectiveness of debuffs on a +4 AV/GM. The AV/GM resistances will reduce that even further - you'll only be getting 15% of the return on most debuffs. So your -resistance debuff is only worth half what a comparable +damage buff would be worth and your -defense debuff is worth about 1/16th of a +hit buff.
+Dmg buffs are additive with your enhancement values, so assuming standard +95% dmg slotting, a 15% -res debuff would be roughly equal to +30% dmg. -
Oddly, after reading Samuel Tow's well-reasoned dissection of the thing, I find myself liking the SSAs more. I've always had a healthy disdain for signature characters, their unimaginative concepts, their poorly designed costumes, and their privileged position within the lore "just because". Now things are finally changing: the Freedom Phalanx are incompetent and Arachnos seems more irrelevant than ever. It's the dawn of a new age where players are the real heroes and villains, not some developer's pet character. If this is the direction the game's going in, then I'm pretty eager to see what's happening next. Rock on Paragon Studios!
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Quote:Only the developers know that. But my record is:Originally Posted by Wing_Leader
And yet, what is the first-time success rate is for the iTrials? Low single-digit percentage, at best?
BAF: Failed at Siege due to being overwhelmed by 9CUs.
Lambda: Success.
Keyes: Success, however the league leader had done it on Test before.
UG: Success, however the league leader had done it on Test before.
TPN: Success.
MoM: Success.
I do think that failure is largely due player incompetence, not trial design or difficulty. Simple mistakes like not bothering to read up on the trial and what you will face (fundamental to all good strategy - know thy foe), bringing insufficiently level shifted or poorly designed characters, poor situational awareness and reflexes etc. Many players also display poor attitude, such as lying dead on the floor rather than helping, or demoralizing the league ("we're not going to make it", "this is too hard"). -
Quote:I tested this and happily it does work.Originally Posted by Pitho
Enemy damage resistance resists damage debuffs (if the damage resistance is of the type of damage they're dealing). I should test it sometime to make sure, but I suspect resistance debuffs, like what sonic blast inflicts, amplifies the damage debuffs given out by Kinetics.
Lv50 Steel Strongman vs Lv50+1 time controller
Punch: 162.63
Punch with TJ (-20.0% dmg): 133.74
Punch with TJ and SR (-22.5% res all): 126.53
Punch with SR: 162.63
Don't agree that spending slots on SB is worth it though. The default slot with 1x endmod is enough, most builds won't need more than that. -
Quote:This is a bit misleading, because scrapper melee mod is the same as blaster range mod (1.125), and brutes at the damage cap will slightly outdamage scrappers and blasters both.Originally Posted by Zeh_Masteh
1) +damage buffs (like Musculature) work off of base damage, of which blasters have the highest.
2) Interface and Judgement does the same damage for each AT: while you argue, "no fair, all other ATs got nukes like us", I argue "cool, now we have even more nukes"
3) Even if a scrapper/brute can out-damage a Blaster (rare, fringe cases exist) in Single-Target, they still suffer from low target caps: scrappers/brutes usually hit 1 enemy at a time, sometimes 5, and up to 7 (I think), whereas blaster AoEs often hit 10, up to 16 enemies for only slightly less damage
The part about melees having less AoE power is only true if you only consider attacks from the primary. Melees get APP aoe attacks with the same target caps as well as self-buffs, damage auras and AoEs from the secondary; melees also herd better, which enhances the effectiveness of their AoE attacks. In practice, the best melee builds match or exceed the best blaster builds at AoE power.
What is true is that blasters mature earlier (a fireblaster is mostly complete by 21 or so when they can get Blaze slotted, but a scrapper or brute won't be done until they have all their toggle defenses and APP attacks).
Finally, stating that "blasters contribute to a team" is meaningless. In order for the game to be balanced, that contribution must be on par with that of other, better ATs. -
With the disclaimer that I haven't actually played the set and have just been looking at numbers - which can always be deceptive - while dark is good, I doubt it will unseat ill as a top-tier powerset. Illusion's strength is that it controls the things that no control or debuff neutralizes, not having any of the traditional controller achilles heels (mez immunes, big all-boss/EB spawns, AV and above, big alpha strikes, etc.) and vastly reducing the necessity for defense. There will always be value in that.
That said, Dark looks great and I'm looking forward to having something worth playing that isn't fire, plant or ill. -
Quote:Blasters are a benefit to a team, which doesn't say much. A petless MM is also benefit to a team. It's just that in both cases the majority of alternatives provide more benefit.Originally Posted by Hatred666
Blasters aren't a benefit to a team?
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No experience on the poison side. But if you can afford purples, why not kin combats in kick instead? That'd give 1.25 more S/L def, allowing you to drop the reactive armor in tough. If you're running low on end, I'd forget about running tough entirely and rely only on the def.
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Quote:I tried range def + 60 S/L res before on my fire/kin, and ran into the problem that mez immune enemies will ignore both your controls and your defense. And unhappily, one of fire control's weaknesses is that dispersion bubbles counter both its hard mezzes, so you have to deal with a bigger list of mez immune enemies than normal. Instead I recommend S/L/E or S/L/Ranged (as you did, which I didn't know was possible). My S/L/E fire/kin steamrolls cimmies and IDF easily, my pure ranged build never could.Originally Posted by Nemu_
I'm not a big fan of S/L alone on any squishy without mez protection. S/L is good against attacks that do damage but the bane of any squishy is mezzes and ranged defense covers that better than S/L defense.
Were I to choose one I'd go with ranged defense even on a fire/kin because being in melee range is an option, not a necessity. You can always force enemies to use ranged attacks on you and the controls offset the need for S/L defense when you are in the thick of it. Pure farm builds that cherry pick their mobs will get by just fine with just S/L defense though. -
You don't have hasten, and AM can't be made permanent without hasten. You also don't have perma-lingering radiation. It's strongly recommended to skip focused acc for hasten since you already have tactics, def debuffs and high accuracy. Freeze ray is also recommended since it's handy to have a mez.
Try this. This build caps hitchance vs. +3 enemies unless they have def buffs. It also has permahasten/AM/LR, nearly caps (44.5) energy defense as well as S/L, and roughly .4 EPS more recovery than the original build with the same toggles running. It loses CJ and focused acc, and gains freeze ray and hasten.
Note that with this build, the numina proc is in Radiant aura rather than in the more traditional health. You need to click radiant aura to trigger the buff, then you will keep it for 2 minutes. In practice this is less hassle than it sounds since you will be healing intermittently during combat.
If this still sounds like too much annoyance to you, or if you are willing to sacrifice high energy defense, you can rely on hover to softcap and put the numi proc elsewhere.
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I used the enzyme exploit shamelessly. If there aren't any consequences for using an exploit, or if the consequences cannot be reasonably enforced, I see no reason not to. That said, I'm also not going to complain now that it's fixed. You knew the risks when you slotted the enzymes.
Quote:This is the guy who claims that "NOTHING is strong to psi" [sic]. Just smile and nod and go on your way.Originally Posted by Erhnam
Wut? -
Quote:Yet you need a rez, because teammates are dying anyway.Originally Posted by KnightofKhonsu
She is an outstanding healer. She keeps the team at peak health even in such missions like saving Statesman or any of the other Praetorian missions.
Since you need no advice, I wish you best of luck with your new build.Quote:She is a defender, and she does an exemplary job at defending and supporting her team. -
Quote:Play a more minmaxed build. Then you won't have this problem, since you can single-handedly carry the team.Originally Posted by jwbullfrog
You all know the feeling. The one where even the simplest of missions (TF's ect.) go completely wrong because of that one fool that just can't seem to do their job right or just doesn't seem to have any idea what to do with the powers they have.
That's the real value of top-tier ATs and powersets: they free you from the tyranny of AT "roles"/"jobs" and incompetent players. Whether or not other people on the team are playing good builds isn't really a concern.
I never have to type "LF tank/debuff/support/DPS" because I am the tank, debuff, support and DPS. -
Quote:For me, it's the opposite. It's really fun to show off in front of less capable players, and nothing beats the feeling you get when you basically solo the Lambda looting phase as the rest of the league gets picked off and hopelessly crushed, or when you survive MoM unscathed while the tanks die over and over again and fill league chat with their frustration.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Any and all ATs when played by unpleasant and/or incompetent players: Low.
Any and all ATs when played by entertaining and/or highly skilled players: High. -
The rule of thumb is that, once you hit permahasten levels of recharge, it's time to start thinking about building for def. Diminishing returns means that the benefit of ultra-high rech falls off sharply, and blasters tend not to have key powers on long recharge the way support squishies do.
Since you're not taking one of the APPs with an S/L def shield, ranged def is probably the best option, and a top-tier build ought to be able to squeeze out 30 or so ranged def.