Local_Man
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Not only does it cost a lot to make up the 30% Recharge boost for 120 sec. from Accelerated Metabolism, but you may have to make some trade-offs in terms of power choices, use of slots or IO sets used, to get that additional Recharge needed.Originally Posted by EarthLiberator
So if you can get PA perm without Siphon Speed or Accelerate Metabolism (it will just cost a lot,) then 1 is kind of a non-issue. I do like the idea that you can set up a pretty sweet AoE death zone with Ill/Dark, even with no real AoE nuke. Tar patch, terror, PA tanking in the middle, maybe throw in a Water Spout. You got a stew going.
For Ill/Kin, Siphon Speed requires, obviously, that you siphon off of a foe. Once gets you 20%, twice gets you 40%, but that Recharge rate is a bit erratic due to the need to siphon. Ill/Time gets Chono Shift late at 38, but it gives a 50% Recharge boost for 90 Sec. -
Quote:Recall Friend can act as a kind of support power for anyone with a Rez power. It lets you pull teammates out of a bad situation to let them get back on their feet away from the action.Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
Do not understand the love for Recall Friend. It's a travel power, not a support power. Used effectively, it's for stealthing missions if you have invisibility, which you don't, or if you're the first to a mission door, which, as a flier without afterburner, you're not. More often, it tricks newbies into abandoning tough fights and wasting time hiding around a corner instead of digging deep and pushing through.
If you must have an oh-no-someone-died power, #1 choice is Vengeance, #2 choice is Resurrect. Both is great. But Recall Friend doesn't make the list because it doesn't help in that situation.
And it is even better for a Dark Miasma character . . . you need to get the dead teammate near a foe to use Howling Twilight. I have stacked up seven teammates in one place before using HT to rez them all. -
Quote:I suspect the picture was stitched together and the barks were autotuned to the right pitch. Each dog probably only did a few barks in a room by itself. Still, it is a pretty good bit of work.Originally Posted by Sailboat
Hey, that's pretty funny. Wonder how much was done with good old-fashioned reward-based training and how much by computer?
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Quote:I have to admit that I've never gotten a */Sonic up high enough to get Liquify. Sonic has never caught on for me.Originally Posted by Sir Hextor
Local, you forgot about Liquefy being in Sonic
Understandable, though since I constantly forget about it too. -
Quote:OK, "virtually no 7." I forgot about that minimal damage in HT. And I have played lots and lots of Dark Miasma. (The original Local Man is a Dark/Elec Defender!) I often find myself holding off on using HT in case a Rez in needed . . . and miss a lot of good opportunities. It does so many things!Originally Posted by MentalMaden
Actually Howling Twilight does have a mild AOE damage component. It's also a nice debuff and control power that is autohit.
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The truth is . . .
Illusion is so good that all secondaries work with Illusion. So an Ill/Dark will be good.
However, there are a few things that really help Illusion have synergy with its secondary:
1. Self-Recharge Buff to help PA and other powers come back faster. (Easier for Perma-PA.)
2. Resistance Debuff to help PA hit harder
3. Defense Debuff to help PA hit more often
4. -Regen to help take down AVs
5. ToHit Debuff to help you survive when PA aren't there (at least in lower levels), or some other mitigation.
6. A self-heal.
7. AoE Damage to make up for the lack of AoE Damage in Illusion.
Rad and Time have 1-6, which is why they are so good with Illusion. You could argue Rad has 7, too, with Fallout, but I don't really count that. Kinetics has 1, 6 and a weak 4. Cold has 2-5. Storm has 2, 3, 5 and 7. Trick Arrow has 2, 3, a weak 4 and a good 7. Therm has 2, 4 and 6. Sonic has 2 and that's about it. FF has 5 from PFF.
What about Dark? No Recharge buff, good 2, no 3, good 4, good 5, good 6, and no 7. -
Many of my characters are based off of names that contain puns related to their powersets. I suppose they could be considered "Concept Characters." Several of them have detailed back stories as well:
The one that seems to get the most comments: My Elec/Shield scrapper is named "Ohm Depot." He is dressed in an Orange vest and Khaki pants, and specializes in home repair advice. I also have a Plant/Elec Dom named "Ohm and Garden."
The one that got me started: I wanted to make a "sapper" character, so went with a Kinetics/Elec Defender (long before even CoV). He looks Egyptian, and has a backstory that he drains the electrical energy from his foes, stores it in himself until he discharges it in his attacks. His name is "Sultan Battery" (Say it out loud). Yes, I know that a Sultan is not Egyptian, but the costume choices were limited.
My favorite "literate" character: I wanted to make an Illusion/Trick Arrow. An Illusionist can be a magician or entertainer. But I wanted to refer to the Bow and Arrow, too. Bow and Entertainer . . . So he became an entertainer for the French Foreign Legion who does magic tricks with tricked out arrows. His name is "Beau Jester." (For those who don't know, "Beau Geste" is a famous old novel and movie about 3 brothers who join the French Foreign Legion.) When the Jester outfit was added later, it was a perfect fit!
My juvenile humor attempt: I wanted an Ice/Ice Tank. I came up with a really tacky name and needed to make a concept to fit. So there are these endangered mice who only live in Ice Banks in the North Pole. Santa, who is environmentally conscious, sent one of his Elves to protect the endangered Ice Bank Mice. So he became "Ice Bank Mice Elf." (Say it out loud.) Yeah, it is a stretch, but I thought it was funny.
I needed a name for my Stone/Fire Tank. Fire and Stone go together in a Fireplace. So he became "Mickey Mantel" with Mantel spelled like the fireplace instead of like the baseball player.
Lots of others: "Pepe LePewPew" is a DP blaster who looks like a skunk and speaks in a French accent. "Storm Drain" is my Ice/Storm Controller who drains heat to control the weather. My Traps/Rad Defender is a master of gadgets: who better than "Ron Popiel"? My Thugs/Dark MM is an evil short guy who likes to boss around others: "Micro-Manager." -
Roots is a key source of damage for a Plant controller. If you plan on contributing to the AoE damage, you should slot Roots for damage. If you want a place for that Gravitational Anchor set, you can always take Entangle.
Slotting Creepers has been an interesting debate for a long time on these boards. It does a whole bunch of things part-time. From all those discussions, the most commonly recommended slottong for Creepers is: 2 Acc/Dam Hami-Os, 2 common Recharge, and the damage procs from Posi-blast and Impeded Swiftness. But to get that good slotting, you give up set bonuses. On the other hand, there are plenty of other powers that can be slotted to get 6.25% Recharge.
Recall Friend is a great place for a Zephyr -Knockback. It only needs Range in a very few zones (the length of IP or in the Shadow Shard, and you can use Team Teleport instead). It recharges quickly and the endurance cost is not important most of the time.
Personally, I would prefer the Ice APP over Earth. Plant is weak with single target damage, and Ice Blast fills that hole. You get two good RANGED AoE damage powers, Frost Breath (faster recharge) or Ice Storm (Large AoE DoT), an S/L defense armor that looks a lot better than Rock Armor, and Hibernate -- a wonderful "panic button" power. Earth's single target ranged attack is too slow, and Siesmic Smash and Fissure both require you to go into (or near) melee. I went with Earth for my Plant/Kin (who has to be in melee anyway), but chose Ice for my Plant/Storm and my Plant/Rad. -
I'm glad I could be of help.
Grav/Storm has some great synergy. One aspect, the lack of -knockback in Crushing Field, is one of the best and worst part about the combo. The Good? Crushing Field+Freezing Rain lets you have a knockdown field where the foes can't run away -- it is this AoE control that helped me get through the lower levels. The Bad? Because Crushing Field does not have -knockback, Tornado tends to throw foes all over the place.
Another part of the great synergy: Gravity's strength is (slow) single target damage, with GD, Crush, Propel and Lift. All of these are ranged. If you turn on Hurricane, then while you attack your one target the other foes will try to run into melee, get repelled and have their ToHit debuffed so they can't hit you. But you can hit them. You can enjoy the pure chaos of Tornado, Lightning Storm, Hurricane, Wormhole and even Gale because you can smack foes from a distance.
Another synergy: Wormhole does Stun. Thunderclap does Stun. You can stack the Stun or extend it with Thunderclap.
Another Synergy: Steamy Mist makes it easy to get full invisibility, using either Super Speed or a Stealth IO. Invisibility makes it easy to lead Singy into battle to be your tank, draw the aggro while you pick off foes one at a time. Invisibility makes it easy to scout out the situation, pick your target and pick your destination for Wormhole. Invisibility makes it easy to run into melee and cast Lightning Storm.
One of my favorite things to do with my Grav/Storm is set up a room with only one doorway. I lead Singy into the room, cast Lightning Storm and Tornado in the room. Then I stand in the doorway, turn on Hurricane and then Wormhole a group into the room. Hit them with Freezing Rain and Crushing Field. I call it the "Room of Death."
I actually haven't fully IO'ed out my Grav/Storm. Sadly, he is on a secondary server, and most of my regular buddies are on my main server. This is part of why I solo'ed him up most of the way. I generally save my full IO efforts for characters on my main server. My Grav/Storm is currently a mix of Frankenslotting and common IOs. Every now and then I pull him out again to run a few tip missions or the Who Will Die mission to earn a Hero merit or two. I may eventually make a "final" build and move him to one of my more often used servers. (I'm up to 32 level 50 characters, and I just don't have the time or resources to IO out all of them.)
I skipped Lift, Dimension Shift and O2 Boost in my build. I have Hasten and Super Speed. I added in the Medicine Pool for Aid Self. I then chose the Ice APP set. With the changes coming to Gravity, I may add Lift back in. In the current version of Grav, Lift's damage was weak -- Crush does more damage than Lift AND sets Containment if GD misses. -
*/Rad goes well with all primaries. It is a great all-purpose secondary. But, in my opinion, Gravity goes better with a few other secondaries. I played a Grav/Rad for a while and eventually gave up on it. I also gave up on Grav/Kin and Grav/Therm. It wasn't until I teamed Gravity and Storm that I was able to stay with Gravity to level 50. I ended up playing that character mostly solo, but the synergy between Grav and Storm was great.
Grav/Rad has some pretty good synergies. An AoE Immob plus Radiation Infection is almost a hold -- the foes can't move and their chance of hitting you has dropped. Gravity focuses on single target damage, but is weak on AoE control. Rad Infection will really help make up for that lack of AoE control. Wormhole will work well with the combo -- wormhole foes into an area, Immob, RI and EF while they are stunned, and then you can pick off the foes one by one when they will have trouble hitting you. Rad adds some other extra AoE control in EM Pulse. Ling Rad's slow will stack with the slow in much of the Grav set. I probably would not recommend Choking Cloud since Grav does not have another PB AoE toggle aura to stack with Choking Cloud. Mutation and Fallout are always optional, but some folks like those powers.
Grav/Rad should be a decent team-focused controller who can also solo. -
You may want to check: I think I saw something for the next issue about a fix for the Hami-O exploit, where Enzymes will no longer enhance Defense. Lots of people have been using that exploit for a long time, but I think I recall seeing that it is finally being fixed.
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Quote:I don't have a problem with folks looking at the time to solo a pylon as one way to compare characters . . . I'm just pointing out that the mechanics in Illusion are unique such that the standard tests don't take into account the unique elements of an Illusionist. The Illusory damage is far more reliable than the random damage from procs. It happens every time, and if you defeat the foe before the heal back, you keep the damage.Originally Posted by Laevateinn
There are strong reasons why pylon soloing works just fine:
1) Illusory damage is not reliable. It's always preferable to underestimate than overestimate capabilities, and to measure only the part of your raw DPS that is 100% reliable, counting the illusory part as a bonus against low HP targets. So healback on pylons is not an issue.
2) ST DPS metrics are only relevant vs. high HP targets (boss level and above) since against Lt and below, the # of attacks taken to kill a target can vary quite a lot depending on your luck with procs and so on. Pylon soloing models such situations reasonably accurately.
3) On top-tier builds, the portion of damage that heals back is a small part of total attack damage. On SW slotted with apoc + Gladiator's Javelin proc, the attack damage is an average of ~145 while the amount that heals back is only 19.6. In other words, if there was no healback you would get an extra 15.6% damage off SW. Since this is only one attack (albeit the highest DPA one), and a big part of controller damage now comes from DoT interfaces, in practice the gain will probably be well under 10%.
Even if you disagree, pylon soloing is still valuable in that it gives a lower range for your DPS. When exact values can't be calculated, the next best thing is to have lower and upper ranges for the real value.
I have seen a lot of min-max people on the forums generally ignore the effect of minions and lieutenants. They view the low level foes as a minor inconvenience and discount any consideration of the need to get rid of them . . . mostly because any character with good AoE will wipe them out in no time. But Illusion is different. Illusion has no AoE damage untill APP/PPP levels, so PA and Phantasm are key to an Illusionist's damage. The pets, however will focus on minions and lieutenants if they are around, making it harder to take down the tough foes. Illusory damage helps you take out those low level foes faster, letting your pets focus on the tougher targets. Most of the time, one attack chain of Blind-SW-Blast-SW (or even less) will wipe out a single minion. It may take 1 to 2 chains for a lieutenant. Without the Illusory damage, it would take longer. Then, when the lower foes are gone and you can focus on those tougher targets, the "true" damage is a combination of your character's damage and the damage from the combined pets.
On the other hand, if the Illusionist does the same thing that most other characters do, by focusing attacks on the biggest foe first, he will waste all that Illusory damage and the pets will spend their time slowly wiping out the lower foes before focusing on the big guy. The overall Damage/Time will be substantially lower.
This is one reason why soloing a pylon is a poor measure of the effectiveness of an Illusion Controller. The main strength, of course, comes from an Illusionist's ability to distract a tough foe while being free to debuff and attack in relative safety. Pylon's aren't really big on distraction.
Also, I wouldn't consider the effect of PvP and purple procs. Very few people invest in a Glad proc for Spectral Wounds, and even the Apocalypse set is pretty darn expensive . . . I don't have either in my Ill/Rad. (Yes, I could get them, but with 32 level 50 characters, I don't want to invest that much into one, even if it is my favorite character of all.) Those procs are "chance to" procs, so the actual effect is up to the Random Number Generator. Over the long run, you can expect a certain effect, but you can't know on any one attack when those procs are going to hit. Illusory Damage, in comparison, hits every time that Spectral Wounds hits. -
As for posting a build, it is really pretty easy. In Mid's, click on "Import/Export" on the Menu bar. Then choose "Short Forum Export . . ." Pick a color scheme (I like Fruit Salad) on the left side of the box. Under that, click the first and third boxes -- the third one will export a data chunk if the link doesn't work. On the right side of the box, choose "Official Forums (VBulletin)" and under that only check "Don't export Invention Levels." Then click on Export Now. The codes needed to post the build will be put on your clipboard, so you only have to press Ctrl-V to paste the build to a forum post.
As for the build: Your choice of powers is OK but your slotting needs some work. Why are you building for melee defense? You have Force Bubble and all of your powers are ranged . . . you have no reason to be in melee. Build for Ranged Defense and Recharge! Use Thunderstrike in Crush, Propel and Lift.
Wormhole is badly underslotted. A full set of Stupify will give you more Ranged Defense. Don't slot GDF for Slow-- it is a hold! Try the Lockdown set. Trap of the Hunter in Crushing Field. Three Thunderstrike, Stupify, Lockdown and Trap of the Hunter put you past the softcap for Ranged defense.
Now you go for Recharge. In PFF, Deflection and Insulation shield, use a Luck of the Gambler Recharge and Defense. Put another LotG Recharge in Hover (and use that second slot in Wormhole). Replace the Def/Rech in Maneuvers with a LotG Recharge. That gives you your max of 5. In Grav Dist., use 4 Baz Gaze (don't use the proc). You can add more Acc and some damage in the last two slots -- an Acc/Dam and a common Damage.
Singy can get some special slotting: Keep the Sovereign Resist proc. Add Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech and the Resist proc from Expediant Reinforcement. Fill that last slot with a Dam/Mez Hami-O (they are fairly cheap). That will cap Singy's damage, give him great Resistance (since he can't be healed) and buff his mezzing powers too.
Health: use a Miracle proc, a Numina proc and then a Numina Heal. With all the Luck of the Gambler sets, you should have a pretty good amount of Regen, which will reduce your need to heal.
Consider changing Fly to Superspeed. With that Stealth proc you have in Sprint (which could be moved to Super Speed), you will have full invisibility. Full Invis is great for leading Singy into battle. If you need to fly, use a Raptor pack.
Here is what I came up with in just a few minutes. I'm sure that this could be improved.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Gravex: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Gravity Control
Secondary Power Set: Force Field
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Crush -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Personal Force Field -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(7)
Level 2: Lift -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 6: Gravity Distortion -- NrncSD-Acc/Rchg(A), NrncSD-EndRdx/Hold(13), NrncSD-Acc/EndRdx(15), NrncSD-Hold/Rng(15), NrncSD-Acc/Hold/Rchg(17), NrncSD-Dam%(17)
Level 8: Propel -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 10: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 12: Deflection Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(23)
Level 14: Crushing Field -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(A), TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(25), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(25), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(27), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(27), TotHntr-Dam%(29)
Level 16: Insulation Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(29)
Level 18: Gravity Distortion Field -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(31), Lock-Rchg/Hold(31), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(33), Lock-%Hold(33)
Level 20: Dispersion Bubble -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(33), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), RedFtn-Def(34), RedFtn-EndRdx(36)
Level 22: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 24: Aid Self -- Heal-I(A)
Level 26: Wormhole -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(43), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(45), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(46), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(46), Stpfy-KB%(48)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(36)
Level 30: Tactics -- GSFC-Build%(A), GSFC-ToHit(37), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(37), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(37), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(39)
Level 32: Singularity -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(A), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(40), SvgnRt-PetResDam(40), HO:Perox(42)
Level 35: Power Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(42), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(42)
Level 38: Repulsion Bomb -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 41: Temp Invulnerability -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(45), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(45)
Level 44: Force Bubble -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(48), Mrcl-Rcvry+(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(50), EndMod-I(50)
Level 1: Containment
Level 4: Ninja Run
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I love this video for Volkswagon: Bark Side of the Force
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Quote:I agree that Superior Invis is not reliable for Defense, since half of the Defense suppresses when you attack or click on a glowie. The endurance cost of SI is too high for half the defense.Originally Posted by Laevateinn
I don't recommend relying on supe invis for defense at all. The end cost of supe invis is almost the same as tough, weave and maneuvers combined. It should be used situationally and not kept running all the time.
Including supe invis, you have about 32.5 ranged def which is actually quite low for a build taking fighting pool (fighting pool builds ought to be able to hit 45 ranged def and 60 S/L res). My advice would be to 1) drop fighting pool and try to maintain 32.5 def without it, or 2) keep fighting pool and build for 45 ranged def instead.
The amount of rech you have seems excessive. In general spending lots of slots to shave a second or two off Flash isn't worth it once once all key powers are permanent. The benefit of building for recharge drops off sharply at this level.
I distrust paper DPS calculations and prefer empirical testing (meaning pylon soloing). One way you could find out your DPS would be to solo a pylon with lore pets of known DPS. Kill the pylon, calculate the DPS done, then subtract the lore pets DPS. You thus get your own DPS. PPP pets do not do 200 DPS, those are Lore pets.
Try this: perma-PA/LR/AM, 44.3 ranged def, 61 S/L res, all key powers taken and properly slotted. Note that this build's recovery is higher than mids' indicates, since it does not count the numina proc and the PShifter proc (worth about 0.2EPS on average).
I also agree that once you have gotten your recharge into the 210-220% range, more Recharge is pretty much wasted. Perma-PA requires about 206%. I think my Ill/Rad has about 213% Recharge, and that's all I need. There's enough overlap to give me a little bit of cushion.
I don't agree that soloing a Pylon is a good way to measure your DPS unless you are only concerned with AV and EBs. A Pylon will take a while to take down which will allow almost all of the Illusory damage to heal back. The only real way to measure the damage done by an Illusion controller is to take samples of damage done during several fights which include minions and lieutenants, and then compare that to other characters played the same way -- but other characters really should use different strategies than an Illusion Controller. Illusion presents some unique strategy issues, making it hard to compare to other characters and the standard measurements don't quite work.
Illusory damage is unique to Illusion controllers. It can almost be thought of as the opposite of Damage Over Time . . . Illusion has high burst damage and then heals back over time. As long as you can defeat the foe in a short time, you get to keep the Illusory damage. (Compare this to if you have DoT, but you defeat the foe, you lose the DoT.) Because Spectral Wounds recharges quickly, you can actually stack several "hits" of Illusory Damage to add up to a decent amount. But the longer a foe takes to defeat, the more of that Illusory damage heals back.
The standard ways to measure damage were not designed to take Illusory damage into account. -
I've never gotten into doing DPS calculations . . . I could figure it out, but I'm lazy. But there are some other factors that are hard to measure. Killing foes quickly let you keep the Illusory damage from Spectral Wounds because you get to keep that damage if you kill a foe before the damage heals back. Phanty's decoy and Phantom Army also do some Illusory Damage. That extra damage from the Blind-SW-Blast-SW attack chain in fast smallish attacks lets you kill off foes without wasting damage, killing foes faster. By choosing to kill off minions first, you can increase your overall damage quite a bit. It also allows your pets to focus on tougher targets since they distracted by fewer targets. You can also choose to attack foes being attacked by PA and Phanty's Decoy, killing them off before the Illusory damage heals back.
You can intelligently choose your targets. A pet can't. Pure DPS calculations can't take that into account. That's part of the reason I feel that the APP blasts are better than the PPP pets. -
Not crazy, but I think Temporal Mending is a useful power. I can think of other powers for a Grav/Time that I would skip before Temporal Mending. Personally, I would probably skip Temporal Selection before Temporal Mending. I would take a full team heal over a single ally buff.
It really depends on your build and your playstyle. If you posted your build, folks might have some other suggestions. You have one place for a Luck of the Gambler in your secondary. You can pick up more with Hover, Afterburner, Combat Jumping. I know Power Boost is popular, but you could fit another LotG Recharge in an APP shield. -
Quote:How dare you bring actual common sense into this game!!Originally Posted by Oathbound
That... would be very counter-intuitive given his repel field. (Why a singularity repels* anything is a bit of a head scratcher.)
(Also note that, ironically, none of the powers with Repel in their name actually are repel. They're all knockback.) -
Good, smart players who understand their characters, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and know how to adjust their playstyle to help a team. No primadonnas, lone rangers or dictators.
And nothing makes a team better than folks with a good sense of humor. I don't mind a team wipe from everyone laughing. (And I've had a few.) -
Quote:Actually, once everyone got Rocky, at 32 you would have 8 super-boosted pets doing pretty good damage. Add in 8xStone Prison and Fossilize, and even a team of Earth/Emps could do pretty well. And once the APP attacks came along, this team would do decent damage.Originally Posted by Papaschtroumpf
wonder if that applies to 8x Earth/Emp
must be like watching grass grow (and just as safe) -
I think Gravity/Traps will be very popular . . . the idea of setting up a "Field of Doom" and then wormholing foes into the middle of it is pretty funny. I just like to think of what a group of foes would be thinking . . .
"Whoa! Where are we? and what's this bunch of blinking things on the gr . . . <BOOM>" -
Quote:It would help if you would quote the entire paragraph instead of just one sentence. What I actually said was:Originally Posted by Laevateinn
The difference in recovery and recharge (not the % recharge bonus, but the actual number of seconds reduced), endurance and control power is minimal.
As an example, my permahasten, S/L/E softcapped, limitless end fire/kin has 23.3s recharge on flashfire. If stripping out all the defense IOs and toggles would give +50% recharge, the recharge time would drop to 20.6s. That's a mere 2.7s improvement that decreases further the more siphon speed/ally +rech buffs are present.
You don't mention the advantages of softcapping: it works even if you pay no attention to it. It allows you to concentrate on supporting your teammates rather than fighting for your life. It means teammates don't have to worry so much about keeping you alive. It means fewer deaths and more time mezzing, debuffing and slaying. It means you can play more independently, take the initiative and implement a much wider range of tactics.
People build for defense for the same reason investors diversify their investments. Mezzes don't work on some enemies, and defense doesn't work on others. But the number of situations where both mezzes and defense don't work is much smaller.
Def/res, mezzes, damage, debuffs and heals are all valuable parts of a well-rounded, versatile offense and defense that focuses on being able to support teammates in as many situations as possible and confront threats with many different tools, rather than conforming to the "intended" way of building a controller.
It's often claimed that you don't need defense if you have good tactics and teamwork. This paints a caricature of those who do not build for defense as skilled, experienced team players while demeaning players of softcapped builds as poor players relying on a crutch to cruise through the game with mind-numbing ease.
But attention, human reflexes and animation time have limits, and even the best players do make mistakes, especially overestimating their own ability. There's only so much that humans can keep track of at once, doubly so in trials. Defense helps by slowing incoming damage so that you have more time to think and react.
Arguments against defense tend to emphasize it's not necessary, or focus on subjective personal preferences (preferring more situational powers, preferring higher difficulty, etc.) which have no relevance as regards build advice.
But anything can be labelled "unnecessary" if you set low enough standards. IOs aren't necessary for sure. Enhancements aren't necessary, if certain challenge settings are anything to go by. MMOs aren't necessary for living so I suppose we might all stop playing now. Just because something isn't necessary doesn't mean it's not desirable, valuable or useful.
In the end, beyond a very low minimum threshold, what is and isn't necessary is up to player preference. What can be answered with certainty is the question, "does defense improve the survivability of the build?" The answer is - yes.
Using your own example, your high Defense build has a 2.7 longer Recharge time than a Recharge-focused build. In the midst of a battle, 2.7 seconds is a long time. A Defense-based build will certainly improve your own character's survival, but you will be able to provide control for the team less often. That's the trade-off. You will also have to give up certain situational powers like Smoke, Bonfire, Ring of Fire, etc. Those powers may or may not be worth trading for Defense. That's personal choice.Quote:Characters who can control more will provide more benefit to the team. Characters who softcap usually do so at the cost of less Recharge, less control and/or fewer "situational" powers that can provide various benefits. Besides, not being nearly invulnerable makes the game a lot more of a fun challenge. It takes more strategy, more teamwork and a lot more attention than being able to walk into the middle of a huge group of foes and ignore them.
Once again, you have mischaracterized what I have said about Defense-based builds when you claim that folks who do not support defense-based builds disparage Defense-based players. That is a fabrication. I certainly never suggested that a Defense-based player is less skillful. I assert that it takes a level of understanding and sophistication in the game to be able to build a softcapped character. But it is more of a personal challenge to play without that high level of defense because you have to worry much more about survival. Once you reach soft-capped defenses, the game becomes less challenging. -
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm considering taking it on one of my Plant Controllers . . . Plant relies heavily upon Seeds and Creepers, and if you have used both, you have to wait a while for them to recharge. If you get some Adds or an ambush, you have to find a different way to deal with the new foes. Burnout might let me get Seeds and Creepers up fast in an emergency. I could see it being useful for a Mind Controller, too.
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Quote:I don't see that any of these changes make a significant change to the powerset. Lift and Propel will do more damage. Wormhole will have a larger area and no longer subject you to an initial attack. (I won't have to hide behind a wall anymore!) Singy will do more damage. And Dimension Shift will change from being horrible to mearly questionable. These changes will make the set better, but not really change its focus.Originally Posted by Screwyrabbit
Local - you always have great insight into the different sets. In your opinion, do any of the gravity tweaks grant them greater synergy with any particular secondaries or is it the same you have said in the past but with some nice changes being made?
Gravity will continue to be a fairly strong single target damage set with weak AoE control. Lift may actually become a better power than Crush. It will still rely heavily upon the pet for its best AoE Control. If Wormhole got rid of the knockback, it might become a "every time it is up" power like Flashfire or Stalagmites, but with the knockback it is still a situational power. I question whether the changes to Dimension Shift will make it a power worth taking . . . but it is at least worth considering with these changes whereas before it was an absolute stinker.
I really like my Gravity/Storm. Gravity/Dark might be a pretty darn good combo when the next issue hits, but just about everything will go well with */Dark. Grav/Time might be pretty good. But Gravity is still a sub-par Control set if you are looking for AoE control for teams. These changes will make it a better solo set. So you probably want a secondary that is good solo.
I will probably enjoy playing my Grav/Storm more with these changes. But I probably won't roll up another Gravity unless Grav/Traps becomes available. -
Some nice and needed changes to the weaker pets. I wish the Gremlins did more damage, but more Resistance is good.
Quote:A nice buff to PGA, but it really needs some significant -Regen added to make it more useful.- Trick Arrow / Poison Gas Arrow
Now accepts Accuracy enhancements.
The sleep pulses from the patch now have 1.5 accuracy, and hit 100% of the time in PvE instead of only having a 66% chance to proc.
Duration of the Mastermind version fixed to be 20 seconds like the others and not 4.
- Trick Arrow / Poison Gas Arrow