Liliaceae

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Maybe as a mule it would be worth it once I get a build figured out. I just hated having to recast it so often. That was the real kicker for me.

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I felt much the same way. Now I only cast it right before a toughish fight and I'm much happier with it.

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This was before the changes to lighting storm but I would drop it and Voltaic Sentail and let them kill most things. Then again this is on my corr so I understand it is not the same.

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Actually, it's identitcal. The Dominator version even does Scourge.

Hey Talen, our village has lots of idiots!

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Poisonous Ray does not accept Defense Debuff IO sets.


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It doesn't? did this change? I have a defense debuff IO set in mine right now.

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It was fixed. It's probably mentioned in this thread already.

So the million dollar question:

Will a huge buff to damage sweep aside the PToD issue?

How much damage is enough damage for Dominators to make a fair contribution in an AV fight?

Guys, Thorn Burst has no KB, it's the PBAoE. Guess you mean Thorn Barrage?

I like Thorns, it has very good AoE damage if you consider Thorntrops.

Impale does a lot more damage than the second blasts from the other sets, although I agree it's activation time is too long. The easy solution is to skip it. The rest of the set is good for AoE.

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"When you blast your target, you keep them off balance and lower their resistance to mezzing effects."

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Yes, that's an interesting suggestion. It would be most useful in the lower levels, and make it easier to hold through the PToD. It would be unique and interesting but I don't think it would address the core issues of Energy Assault.

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honestly, comparing it to /elec isn't really fair - elec is such a massive outlier that it can't really be matched.

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But they need to be comparable. If that means reining in Electricity Assault, so be it.

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In comparison to the rest, I'm not sure that it'd come off *that* bad in ST damage. Moving bonesmasher and power blast to the blaster versions would be required, of course.

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It should be no contest. Energy sacrifices AoE and it needs to be good at ST in return.

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And remember, how much DPS do you lose by spamming your single target hold?

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Whenever I've looked at this the answer is actually "not much".

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The primary is usually enough, it is true, and if you can't keep yourself alive using it, you probably *aren't* that good at playing a dom.

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My wording until now has been harsh because I don't like the tradeoff. To put a positive spin on it I would say:

Energy Assault is the safe assault set, and can protect you in cases where your primary fails.

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Would it be too much to say that maybe the fix is to simply lower the animation times to all the energy attacks for dominators to compensate for the weaker damage? ald slightly lower the recharge on attacks basically faster animation = more DPS?

Also converting Power Boost to Power Build Up would be a way to also helping.

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That approach is kind of a problem. I believe that BaBs and Castle both think that the fast blasts (Blaze and BiB) are out of line and are not interested in emulating that for other sets. Energy Blast users in particular would be upset to not get similar animation improvements.

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Embrace also does a -MaxRunSpeed for Tanks and Blasters, which Doms lack. (Doms just get a -RunSpeed, not a -Max)
On the other hand, Doms get a -50% Rech, Blasters get only -40, Tanks -32. Now does that relate to some sort of AT Mod?
Also of note, the Blaster version costs more End than the other 2.

Maybe it's worth just putting the imbalance on the list and leaving it at that?

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Dropping the -Rech and add -Dam is one of those changes that was made to the hero versions when CoV was in development. One theory states that they forgot to port the change over (like the 16 target cap for control powers) the other says that Castle has confirmed that it's correct and shouldn't have -Dam.

I thought it was in the list, if not I'll add it as a kind of clarification.

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I played it. I can't remember what I rated it at the moment but I remember thinking that those custom Sky Raiders looked really good. Some of them had me fooled right up until they pulled out shields and rocket boots, and even then I had to double check. As for the story it seemed a little thin but I don't remember anything really bad about it. Oh and yes, Chalmers was very entertaining.

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Glad you had fun. Yeah the story's not terribly strong, I was also working on player autonomy and mechanics (which is difficult). Think of it as "action" genre.

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I don't know, I have had much crappier results with icy assault, as it is VERY lowbie-unfriendly, and it is the only other set that shares the powerboost trick.

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You must be talking about endurance usage. Yes Icy can be hard on your endurance, you have to be economical with your attacks, and especially careful with Ice Sword Circle, don't activate it for less than three enemies.

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4336 - No Honour Among Thieves
Rating: ***

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Well I've updated it with some technical fixes based on your review and others. I've also added some custom Sky Raiders into the mix for a little diversity.

Feel free to play it again, alternatively I've got a hammer and a nail right here.

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I disagree with most of this entire thread. I have a grav/energy & love him.

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I used to love Jack Daniels, then I tried Cognac.

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But I don't think that increasing the soft control will make it "the set for people who suck at playing doms". I honestly think it'd add an interesting dimension by making it the dom set that allows you to take stuff out of the fight by simply attacking it, as long as the damage wasn't so anemic.

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But the thing is that it's sacrificing damage. Its AoE damage will always be bad, and having only two melee attacks and Power Boost instead of Build Up means it will never match Electricity Assault.

By choosing Energy Assault you are sacrificing damage for extra control, which only makes sense if your primary is not enough to assure your survival. But for a good Dominator player it is, so Energy becomes the set for the bad Dominator player.

Perhaps having such a set is appropriate and I just have to learn to live with the fact that it's not for me.

As the Dom buffs get closer I lament that our best package for Energy Assault is "the set for people who suck at playing doms".

Please someone have a good idea! I want to save this set.

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50 stuck in my head in terms of the amount of mez mag needed to affect an AV, hope that is correct. Well, maybe 2 holds are too powerful, 12.5 instead?

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The problem isn't the number, it's the binary nature of mez against a single powerful foe. All AVs should be customized to have varying degree of powers depending on how much hold mag is stacked on them. It's not going to happen though because it's a lot of work. Pushing up the mag we can stack doesn't help solve the problem, it just moves it around.

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Allow dom's tier 1 and 2 powers from control and assault available to use even while mezzed. Similar to what blasters have.

While in dom, make single target mez powers have a mag of 25.

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While the first is an interesting suggestion, the list unfortunately doesn't include suggestions, it's issues only.

The second can be dismissed out of hand because it would trivialize all AV and hero encounters.

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While in dom, make single target mez powers have a mag of 25.

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Er, no.

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C'mon, we wouldn't have to complain about PToD any more!

Apparently Carrion Creepers bugs might be fixed.

Form a team and drag them through it. If you start the story and then happen to "DC" for a moment someone else will end up with the star and have to lead it, so you'll see how they react to the story.

Also, defeat all is always an available option for me if I want it. I can scour the map after mission complete if I feel like it. Rather than setting the defeat all flag, why not just add some contact dialogue "You probably should clear out every last one, if you don't the plague will probably spread", skip the defeat all flag and let the player do as much as they want.

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4336 - No Honour Among Thieves
Rating: ***

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Thanks for the review Talen, it's very appreciated. I find your assessment both fair and useful, and I'll definitely follow up on some of your suggestions to smooth things out. In fact I find it a positive review even though you only give it 3 stars, because you enjoyed the story and the technical is just a PITA to get right.

I want the final mission to remain on that map and to remain challenging. When you win I want you to have a feeling of success, and if you lose I want you to feel that your loss was fair, and hopefully you feel challenged to try it again. Combined with mechanical details of missions and the architect itself, this will probably hold it back.

Interestingly that much-reviled map was the initial impetus for the entire story. I wanted to give it a chance to shine by building something that highlighted it and played to its strengths.

I had the chance to run through it with a full team the other day. These were mostly casual players, they managed the fighting quite well but barely communicated at all, and did not appear to read the mission popups or nav bar. I purposely didn't lead the team (quite unusual for me) instead choosing to watch how they approached the mission. It was with a certain level of satisfaction that I watched us fail the final mission, knowing that it was due to lack of organization and communication.

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The arc doesn't need polish at this point, it needs some refinement.

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How do you distinguish polish from refinement? You're saying that the text is fine, but the mechanical details need to be worked on?

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Also, it was nice to see 'Honour' spelled correctly.

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I've only had one feedback saying "honor doesn't have a 'u'", immediately followed by "Sky Raiders are Lame. Your story is lame." Makes me wonder why the person pressed the Play button at all.

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Oh, and don't think you've gotten out of your review.

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I've been checking for it frantically all day. I'm on the edge of my seat.