Luminara

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Even Empathy, the powerset most likely to be used by someone attempting to create a "healer", has heals or +Regen buffs in fewer than half of its powers.

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Healing Aura
Heal Other
Absorb Pain
Regen Aura
Resurrect
Adrenalin Boost

Sounds like 6 of 9 to me?

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5/9 (yes, i was wrong about Emp's total number of +regen buffs, didn't account for AB). Resurrect isn't a heal.

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My fly travel power has 3 SO fly enhancements and the icon reports I fly at 104 mph. I don't know where some of the lower fly speeds are coming from but I fly pretty fast.

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Flight speed is capped at 58.6 mph.

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It sucks when you're going to the battle field and your pets are way behind, then when u get to the battle field some blasters 3 shots you before your pets get there

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Put them in Stay mode. They'll automatically teleport to your location when you reach a certain distance from them.

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I make an answer to this already and people still try to argue with me about it?

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"Argument" implies a dispute over facts. No-one has offered you any argument, we've merely corrected misinformation.

Fact: there is no such thing as a "healer" in this game (other than Cimerora Surgeon critters). No specific AT, not even a specific powerset, is dedicated to healing. Even Empathy, the powerset most likely to be used by someone attempting to create a "healer", has heals or +Regen buffs in fewer than half of its powers.

Fact: the game was designed to avoid the need for "healers". Not only is there a greater emphasis on proactive buffs and debuffs than in similar games, but all players are also given access to healing powers via the Medicine pool, temporary powers, pets and inspirations. All players, not one or two specific ATs or powersets, can heal both themselves and their teammates if they wish.

Fact: with the specific exception of healing badges, none of the content in this game was designed to require heals to be completed. Every task/strike force and trial in the game can be completed by a team of competent players without a single one of them being capable of healing.

Fact: there is no "heal aggro". The potential for that specific type of aggro does exist, but it has never been "turned on". The developers deliberately and consciously chose, and still choose, to treat healing as just one of many forms of damage mitigation, not a special form of mitigation worthy of special attention.

Fact: proactive damage mitigation is superior to reactive damage mitigation in this game, in every conceivable way. Healing is reactive mitigation, and as such, it costs more endurance in the long run, requires more effort and places the players at greater risk of defeat.

Fact: in the few rare situations where players became reliant on healing in order to progress through content, the developers changed that content to alleviate the emphasis on healing. Note the changes to Hamidon raids and the addition of "heal decay" in PvP for examples.

Fact: healing is not an important "role" for or function of defenders, controllers, corruptors, masterminds or any other AT, or any AT with access to any powerset with one or more heal powers. Healing is just one potential source of damage mitigation out of many.

Heals are tools, and yes, they're versatile, but they aren't the only tools, or the best ones in the toolbox.

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You know what? This is the same argument I've been in three years ago. It is also clear that everybody is ignorant, lazy, and just plain incompetent except "you."

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Has nothing to do with me. I don't even have any particular interest in "healer" debates, I just prefer to see accurate information conveyed on the forums. And it is accurate to say that heals aren't important as a function of any one AT or powerset, and that players who emphasize healing as the sole or primary method of progression through content are doing so out of ignorance (lack of knowledge, not stupidity), laziness (preferring to make others work harder to support them, or simply not willing to wait a few seconds while a buffer/debuffer does his/her thing before combat) or incompetence (playing poorly).

Don't get your knickers in a knot, I'm not insulting anyone or pointing fingers.

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Indeed.

And as for SStingrays comment:
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Healing is an important part of what defenders can do.

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Umm... No. I see the one, single power in my kit bag that heals, as being the least important ability that my Kin has.

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Holy misquote Batman! It doesn't sound like you really read what I said at all. If healing wasn't important, there wouldn't be teams asking for healers to begin with.

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It's not the importance of heals that drive players to seek out "healers". Ignorance, laziness and sometimes sheer incompetence are why some players want "healers".

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Anyone have a video of a team w/ no defenders or controllers running and successfully winning a STF? Oh, and extensive use of temp powers, aid other, etc, invalidate that as "your team" isn't really winning, then...

I just don't buy that you never need any kind of heal whatsoever, apart from respites, for some of the hardest content in the game. I've been on teams w/ an ideal makeup, (like a kin, stone tank, rads), that didn't succeed, so you'll have to prove to me that you don't need them.

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Is this an example of moving the goalposts? i can't tell.

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In a roundabout way. He's shipping the entire field across the ocean, goal posts included.

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There are times, even when you have great buffs/debuffs/controls, that you just need someone who is good at restoring HP or increasing the other players' regen rate.

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And those times are when you look for a team that isn't splitting up in eight different directions, aggroing entire rooms when half the team is still fighting in the previous room or running blindly into spawns with six aggro-generating toggles turned on and running back to the group screaming "HEAL ME".

Instead of looking for a "healer", look for the Kick button and better teammates.

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Healing is an important part of what defenders can do.

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No, it really isn't. It's part of what some defenders can do, but it's not an important part of what all defenders can do. It's not even the important part of what any defender can do.

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We've all seen the broadcasts: lvl XX healer lft. I used to think people were referring strictly to empaths, but apparently storm summoners can pass themselves as "healers" as well, with their amazing healing set consisting of a whopping 1 single target heal. Maybe it's just me, but this is just more than a tad bit misleading.

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Any use of "healer" is misleading. This game doesn't have a dedicated "healer", no matter how desperately some people attempt to shoehorn it in.

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If this is the case, then any blaster who happens to pick up the ally heal from the Medicine power pool can pass themselves off as "healers" as well.

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You're getting warm.

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Thanks for the analysis Luminara.

Im considering this with Hot Feet on a dom. The base damage is 10, but it is a toggle that will tick every few seconds.

I can fit in 4 damage boosting procs.

But I will be under domination most of the time so there is a damage booster. Then there is no -resist.

So it sounds like I "might" see a damage boost based on what you noted above. So no significant benefit.

Or if Ive interpreted it wrong let me know.

Thanks again.

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For that build, I'd slot four Dam/End IOs, and if you find two extra slots, then pack a couple of extra procs in. I wouldn't replace damage enhancements under those circumstances.

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Ok this was a big issue before, then a few issues ago they finally fixed it. Now, its back... Now i haven't tested the defender version, as IIRC it wasnt broken on that, only on the troller/corrupter version was it bugged.

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Corruptors don't have access to TA.

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But its back, and needs fixed ASAP. When glue arrow is casted, even if the location gets down before the target dies, the location disappears immediately when the target dies.

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It's not happening for defenders.

Identify the issue for the AT or ATs it's affecting and post it in the appropriate forum or PM me so I can let Castle know. Telling defenders that other ATs have bugged powers isn't going to get his attention, or accomplish anything else useful or productive.

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Shadow Fane uses 2 slotted hurdle with combat jumping and is easily faster than a capped flyer.

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I doubt that. I've got a character which will have (when i finish leveling her) 52% +Jump Speed/Height from stacked IO set bonuses and the Frequent Commuter day job, and even with Hurdle three-slotted with level 50 IOs, I can't break 58 mph. I don't see anyone breaking the Flight speed cap with two-slotted Hurdle, unless they have the The Fool buff or are using the Zero-G pack.

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I have noticed a lot of builds people have posted here that don't have a travel power. I have always been a fan of the travel powers offered and feel that they help you quite a bit and are fun. Obviously some people don't feel they need them. I understand the need to squeeze in many powers into a tight build.

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I have level 50 characters with no travel power on Pinnacle, Liberty and Virtue. I also have characters ranging from 14 to 40 on those servers, all with no travel powers.

I don't skip travel powers because my builds are tight, or because there are other powers I want. I skip travel powers because I... love bouncing around with Hurdle and Combat Jumping, and because I've been doing it for so long that I know exactly how to maximize my movement without relying on travel powers.

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The jet packs are slow. Using ouroboros helps but is not going to get you door to door.

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Temporary travel powers and "teleportals" are only part of what makes a successful travel power-less character.

Know your zone connections. Know where the trains/ferries are, which zones they connect, where to find direct zone connections and which ones they connect with.

Know your routes. Learn the layouts of the zones and locate the best ways to reach various points as early as possible.

Be prompt. Don't stand around waiting for someone to tell you that everyone's ready to enter the mission, start moving to the appropriate location as soon as you know which zone it's in. This, by the way, is, in my experience, much more applicable to players with travel powers than those of us without. I can't count how many times I've had to put up with lazy Super Speeders puttering around at the market, or TP beggars (who sometimes have two or three travel powers... don't ask me, i just play here) whining because they don't want to make their own way to the mission door.

If possible, supplement your movement speed with IO set bonuses and temporary powers like Movement Increase or the Commuter/Frequent Commuter day job. Little bonuses add up, and the closer you are to capped Fly speed, the less justification anyone has to complain about your speed.

Learn the art and science of war wall sliding. It's very simple, just nudge up against a war wall when you're jumping with CJ toggled on and you shoot right across and up it like it's Teflon coated.

Don't overslot for jump height if you're using Hurdle + CJ. That'll slow you down, your speed comes from long, shallow leaps, not big high jumps.

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How do you NOT feel like you are gimped without a travel power.

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I've been playing characters without travel powers since I5. Before jet packs. Before IO set bonuses. Before day jobs. Before Pocket D/Ouroboros, and with absolutely no SG base beacons/teleporters to use. And I've never felt "gimped". More often than not, I'm one of the first three or four to get to a mission door. When someone tries to TP me, it's almost always when I'm just a few hops away and it would actually take me longer to stop and click "Yes" than it would to just take those last few hops.

The slowest character I have without a travel power moves at ~52 mph. The fastest I've achieved to date was a short time when I was moving at 66.64 mph (that's about 8 mph faster than capped Fly). There are no obstacles I can't clear or go around quickly and no zones I can't navigate just as easily as anyone with travel powers (this includes zones like Grandville or Terra Volta). And the primary component of my travel capability, Hurdle, is always on and costs zero endurance to maintain, so I never have to worry about running out of endurance because I forgot to toggle my travel power off or being suppressed to base movement speed because I attacked with my travel power toggled on.

Lack of travel powers isn't "gimp", any more than using Fly is "gimp".

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Okay got the gist of this discussion. But still somewhat unclear as to whether slotting a bunch of procs in a low damage power results in higher damage than just slotting for damage.

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It can, as long as the power's base damage really is low and the power accepts more than two procs (because you're replacing damage enhancements). But again, it's important to keep in mind that procs are, essentially, randomly applied damage, as opposed to damage enhancements, which offer a guaranteed predetermined amount of damage (presuming the power hits).

Here's the simplest way I can explain how I see it: if the base damage of a power ~40 or less, or the power takes a long time to deliver its damage (8 seconds or more), and the power accepts three or more damage procs, then it's worth slotting the procs instead of damage enhancements. If the base damage of the power is greater than 45, or the power doesn't accept at least three damage procs, then it's more worthwhile to slot damage enhancements rather than procs (note that you can still slot procs in the power, in the slots you would've reserved for Acc, End, Rchg or whatever else, but you have to consider what you're giving up that way just like you have to look at the damage and how it compares to procs).

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Example :

Will slotting 4 damage boosting proces in a power like Hot Feet generate more damage over time than just slotting 3 damage SO's ?

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Maybe. It wouldn't be better if you were playing a Fire controller who uses +Damage buffs (like Fire/Kin), because procs don't benefit from +Damage. You may actually lose damage output over the long term if you rely on +Damage buffs. On the other hand, if you don't use +Damage buffs, or you use -Res debuffs or don't use any buffs or debuffs, then you're likely to see an increase in the average damage potential of the power.

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If so is it a lot more damage or just marginal ?

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That also depends on the primary and how you play. With no -Res, it would be a marginal increase. With a nice amount of -Res, it will tend to be significantly more damage, because the base damage of procs is so much higher than the base damage of the power.

Damage procs aren't, in and of themselves, a suitable replacement for damage enhancements in most cases. You have to build with procs in mind to maximize their contribution, and even then some powers, and some builds, just aren't going to be as productive with procs as they would be with damage enhancements.

To really leverage procs as replacements for damage enhancements, they need to be slotted in AoEs/PBAoEs which deal low or no damage (or take "too long" to deliver their damage); in low/slow damage AoE/PBAoE powers, you need to slot three or more procs; and your build can't be reliant on +Damage to increase its damage output.

If those conditions are met, then it's usually safe to slot procs instead of damage enhancements. If a power doesn't meet one or more of those conditions, then you're better off sticking with damage enhancements and only trying to slot procs when you have "extra" slots.

Excellent. Thank you all very much. Going to do it now, before I go to work.

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Just a "by the way", you can get another wand simply by being on the team when somebody else turns in the salvage for theirs (unless that's fixed), and you can also gain access to the Midnighter Club without even finishing that mission simply by being on the team when somebody else talks to the Latin Student.

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Or just do the arc again through Ouroboros.

I have three bosses in a mission, all spawned when the player enters the map, each spawned in a separate location. All three bosses are required for mission complete, but they aren't spawned or required to defeat in any particular order.

The only nav text assigned to the bosses is "marauders to stop", in the plural text for all three. No singular text, no clues, just that one line in plural nav text.

The problem: regardless of which bosses you defeat, regardless of the order of defeat, one specific boss' name always comes up in the nav text. It's always the same boss, and it always comes up even if it's the first boss you defeat.

Example: The map spawns Chill Drill, Electron Girl and Lily of the Valley. The nav text states "3 marauders to stop". I find and defeat Lily of the Valley, now the nav text states "2 marauders to stop". I find and defeat Chill Drill... and now the nav text states "Lily of the Valley".

That's what it's doing. Doesn't matter which bosses I fight, "Lily of the Valley" is always listed when there's only one boss left, even when it's not Lily of the Valley.

Any ideas? Or do I have to rip all three boss fights out and rebuild them from the ground up? *twitch*

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Hey TA/A peeps.

How does the defender RoA compare to the blaster RoA in terms of damage? I can't ever figure that stuff out since it's a "pseudo pet" power.

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Pet powers use their own modifier table, separate and discrete from what ATs use. Normally, this means pets (including pseudo-pets like RoA) perform exactly the same from one AT to the next. Ice Storm, for example, functions identically when used by a blaster and a defender.

RoA, however, was manually edited to deal less damage for defenders (or more for blasters, depending on which AT it was originally designed for (moot issue, though, since the change to the power was implemented before it was even sent to beta).

Blaster RoA deals 75.07 base damage (at level 50) per tick.
Defender RoA deals 48.77 base damage (at level 50) per tick.

Both can be enhanced, both inherit the caster's buffs. I think pets have a 300% damage cap, but I'm not certain.

But here's a more direct comparison.

A blaster with a fully enhanced RoA (95% +Damage) and using Aim (+62.5% Damage) will deal 193.31 damage per tick, and can defeat +0 minions if all three ticks hit (standard +0 minion HP at level 50, ~430).

A defender using RoA fully enhanced and with Aim (50% +Damage) will deal 119.49 damage per tick, and can't defeat +0 minions even if all three ticks hit unless that defender is also using additional +Damage buffs and/or -Res debuffs.

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If you really want to make a good co-op team, you need to make sure your team's Heroes and Villains compliment each other's powers well.

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Intelligence, determination, skill or creative thinking are all you need to make any team work well. Powers are just tools, it's how you choose to use them that matters, not which tools you have or think you "need".

Additionally, most of the cooperative content tends to be in the higher level ranges, when most builds have fleshed out and handle reasonably well in solo environments against significant enemy forces. Put a handful of those builds together and there's really no reason, as proven time and again by super teams and random pick-up groups, why specific powers are "necessary", much less why any imaginable team would need to be built around "complimentary" powers.

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Luminara, jwbullfrog, Thirty7, Forbin_Project, did yall skip the last sentence

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Nope. I read the whole thing and expressed my feelings on the suggestion. I also addressed that closing sentence. I will do so again, in more detail, so you don't mistake my opinion for lack of reading comprehension again.

If you want to know what enhancements I'm using, ask. No, I do not want a "default off, but if you turn it on everyone can see what enhancements you're using" option any more than I want a camera "optionally" broadcasting my shower activities across the entire globe. Again, not because I have something to hide, but because I do not believe that "nothing to hide" equates to "show it all off, baby!".

My enhancement screen is my business. If you want to make it your business, ask politely and I may honor your request, but I will not support a suggestion to make everyone's enhancement screens globally visible because it's invasive and intrusive.

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Any thoughts?

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Yes. I think it's invasive, and I'd rather use my toes to pick my nose than willingly allow anyone to "inspect" me. Not because I have anything to hide (i've posted builds on these forums many, many times), but because I don't think anyone has any right to just "inspect" me at their leisure. My enhancements, my business. If you want to know, be courteous enough to ask instead of sticking your nose in my enhancement window.

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In my opinion, Disruption is far more than "nice to have". It has a large area and, for a set that's a "jack of all trades", allows you to become "a master of -res" when used with Acid Arrow.

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Eh. It's got a disgusting endurance cost, it's limited to 10 targets (still have no idea why) and it's on a base 60s recharge time. If a player really wants to push it, it can be double stacked (theoretically, triple stacked) with enough +Recharge, but it will also cost quite a bit of endurance and potentially end up "wasted" on fast teams. It absolutely will allow a TA/* to be the strongest -Res debuffer, if stacked, but it's very... it's something that most players won't do, or won't be capable of doing.

And since the debuff is location-targeted, there's also the question of keeping critters in the debuff radius. Even with Glue, OSA and Entangling, sometimes it's a lost cause.

Personally, I don't tell anyone to skip Disruption, but I also don't insist that it's required for all TAs. Some builds just aren't going to see as much benefit from it as others will, and some players aren't going to be as willing to work within the power's limitations as other players are.

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Let me ask the Arrow experts this question, which primary gets the most benefit out of rain of arrows on a team

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That's a very, very situational question. It depends on team composition, speed, whether or not the defender is playing with the team as opposed to splitting off in order to solo while teamed... there are so many variables, it's next to impossible to say that any one primary is going to make RoA perform "best" when teamed.

In a team setting, defender RoA isn't really going to shine unless the team is moving slowly (giving the defender time to "set up" with -Res and -Speed before unleashing RoA); the team is deliberately giving the defender opportunities to use RoA (an all defender super team, for example); the defender is splitting off from the team specifically for the purpose of soloing some spawns; or the is taking point for the team and engages all of the spawns first. And, realistically, primary takes a back seat in all of these scenarios.

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and which gets the most benefit of that power solo.

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Any primary which offers both AoE -Res and AoE -Speed (or some other form of movement impairment). Cold, Dark and Storm would be "best", in that respect, because they each have a single power which imposes -Res and -Speed at the same time and on a short enough recharge to be used with RoA on every (or every other) spawn. Rad and TA would be near the top as well, because they both have AoE -Res and AoE -Speed, though in different powers for each set, but they rate below Dark and Storm due to the limitations they face (recharge time on LR for Rad, AoE radius on Acid for TA).

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Clue order is determined by the goal-creation order. Put simply, Goal1's clue will appear above Goal2's clue, so set up the goals in the orders you want their clues to be revealed.

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I hope they put a way in i15 to reorder the objectives or clues without having to delete and remake the objectives all over again whenever you want to change the order. Especially in an arc already published before you knew about this caveat, so you cannot simply edit the file to reorder them.

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Why not simply have each different objective trigger off of a previous one?

Objective 1 - give clue, spawn Objective 2
Objective 2 - give clue, spawn Objective 3
Objective 3 - give clue, spawn Objective 4

Et cetera.

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I haven't seen a genuinely dangerous environment in the game, save for a little lava.

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I'm working on something... but I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Which reminds me, now that I've figured out how to do what I wanted to do, I need to get my bottom in gear and do the rest of the arc.