Luminara

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In team play, most AT's are within 30% of one another. The few exceptions should be looked at. Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors and Dominators are NOT at the bottom of this list, by any stretch.

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Well, it's nice to have some confirmation that TA defenders aren't actually defenders, since they're THE bottom of the list. It's a step in the right direction, at least!

>.>

<.<

I'd be satisfied just doing the same knockdown that CoT Archers do with their crossbows. Given the amount of time I've spent flat on my back because of them, I darn sure know it'd be an effective secondary for my attacks.

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I7 changes:

1) Working on Oil Slick. I think I have the 'oil doesn't always light' bug fixed (hard to tell - it never failed on my box, but it was replicatable here.) I refered the 'wrong team in PvP zones' issue to programming.

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As far as we were aware, Oil Slick was never meant to have a 100% ignition rate. The problem there is that it's streakier than it really should be (some of us have had it fire up consistantly for hours on end, then suddenly fail to light at all for hours).

The more relevant and important problem is the insanely high defense that the target appears to have. Missing the target repeatedly, despite having accuracy &gt;90% and taking no other actions between attempts, isn't supposed to happen. Ever. Especially not on an immobile, supposedly defenseless target, essentially no different from a desk or crate.

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3) Archery: Fistful of Arrows, Rain of Arrows and Ranged Shot animations shortened.

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I'm guessing that you're referring to the decade-long pause after these powers finish animating. Will the same be done for Ice Arrow, Acid Arrow, and any other TA or Archery powers with post-animation pauses? What about the 0.5-1.0 second delay between when Entangling Arrow's animation completes and the target is actually immobilized?

It's a good start, _Castle_, and appreciated, but some more information would go a long ways. If the sets are going to take a while to get straightened out, it's understandable, but telling us would give us a lot less to complain about and more to look forward to.

Or, I can keep yelling at you in every thread you post to.

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Surly some of these things could be fixed with a simple run through with a spell checker.

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The irony is palpable.

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Hard to say. Debuffs can boost your damage by 30%+, but fulcrum shift can take you right to the (defender) cap, basically doubling your damage. Oil slick comes early, but it comes early on a set that doesn't have the same overall damage boosting capability of sets like radiation or kinetics and has no endurance boosting capability.

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Since Electron Girl is a Kinetics scrapper, I never got to experience the joy of murd... um... defeating an entire spawn at once with a single power, using FS. I know it can be done, but the point I was making is that it's entirely too easy with OSA. Shoot, light, done. A Kin at least has to risk insta-debt by running into range to get a full buff. OSA can be fired from a very nice distance, mitigates the alpha response with the KB component, and allows a TA to simply wander off and do something else while the minions are roasting. The ability to debuff resistance or boost damage doesn't really factor in, either, because all of the secondaries have fair to middling AoEs that can be used to suppliment OSA. If I threw, for example, Rain of Arrows at the spawn after lighting OSA, it's going to be just as effective as debuffing them.

And end has never really been at a premium, in my experience, for TA. At least, not when combined with Archery. The animation times are so long on everything, you actually recover end almost as quickly as you use it, if you have Stamina 3 slotted. Coupled with the complete lack of toggles in either set, it makes it possible to go through several spawns without even pausing.

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The caveat is that it's finicky about lighting. Some days, it'll light EVERY time you use it, other days... well, it can get extremely frustrating.


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Interestingly, (if I hit it) I seem to light it practically 100% of the time inside of missions, and hardly ever outdoors. Amusingly, police drones are capable of igniting it.

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I've seen the same behavior. Indoors, solo, or solo in instanced missions, it's almost reliable. On a team larger than a duo or outside, I don't even bother to use it unless I've already fired off everything else and really need a debuff to keep the foul waste from striking the rotating blades.

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They'll nerf it, though, despite its quirky behavior being one of the inherant limitations on the power. Probably by removing the ability to slot for damage. Especially with the ability to buff things like rains that's coming, which will probably also allow you to buff the damage on OSA.

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Unlikely that you'll be able to buff oil slick. A couple of reasons: first, many pet-like things are not going to be buffed: I believe it was said things like turrets won't be. Second, even if oil slick *was* somehow buffed by Aim, oil slick itself does no damage: the act of killing it creates the burn patch, and there's no real reason to believe that having Aim on at the time you shoot the oil slick will somehow cause the new burn patch to have higher damage: the burn patch isn't "coming from you" at the time.

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Isn't this essentially how all of the Rains work, though? That was the reasoning behind not being able to buff their damage, that it was caused by an instanced pet-type summoning and not the player. OSA basically works like a rain once it lights, it's just going in the opposite direction. So I'd think that the buff, if it's possible, would be when OSA was used and/or before the buff wore off, as the case should be with the various Rains.

Regardless, though, I still think it's going to get nerfed. I just hit 38 last night with Dancing Hawk, and after running around shooting arrows into the air for a while, I'm going to get back to work so I can level up again (to slot Rain of Arrows with more damage) and see just how effective it can be when used on a spawn that's in a burning Slick. If I'm right, it's going to turn OSA into a yellow to orange killer. Now, given that most defenders need to use their nova power to do that kind of damage, and that OSA + RoA + Disruption Arrow still doesn't totally drain end and all three recharge faster than any nova...

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Oil Slick is decent?

I thought it caused fear and did utterly craptastic damage...

is it actually good?

(no seriously, I absolutely LOVED TA when I tried it...I'm just interested in how it does now)

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I can defeat 16 even-con minions at once with it. Oil Slick Arrow, Blazing Arrow to light it, and sit back to watch the show. The AoE is very large, the damage, when slotted with 3 enhancements, is JUST enough to take out even-con minions, and it's both a knockdown and a slow, so it's tough for runners to get out before the burn finishes them.

That's why it's going to get nerfed. It's basically a pre-ED defender nova. When combined with something like Disruption Arrow, it's even more powerful. Throw in Glue Arrow to keep everything moving as slowly as possible, and most of the time, you can turn an entire spawn (within the 16 enemy limitation) into a pile of ashes without anything but lieutenants or bosses getting out. The caveat is that it's finicky about lighting. Some days, it'll light EVERY time you use it, other days... well, it can get extremely frustrating.

They'll nerf it, though, despite its quirky behavior being one of the inherant limitations on the power. Probably by removing the ability to slot for damage. Especially with the ability to buff things like rains that's coming, which will probably also allow you to buff the damage on OSA.

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Time and time again, I ask defenders of TA to show me where the TA defenders are. They look around and around in viegn.

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Sadly, despite having a TA/A approaching level 38 and enjoying her immensely, I still can't defend TA with any reasonable argument. The concept is great. The implimentation is pootastic.

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I guess they could nerf it further but it wouldn't really matter to the popularity that TA has.

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Oh, they will. Entangling Arrow's recharge is short enough to be used as a control without any slotting at all, and Oil Slick Arrow (the single redemption of the set) is just plain overpowered when it does light up.

Oh, yes, TA will be nerfed. Hard.

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What would make TA popular? Well, I suppose we could all take Mieux's approach and sing the praises of the few things TA does well but that falls flat when most people play it and have bad experiences.

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It's great for pulling aggro off of tanks! Nothing like firing off Flash Arrow, letting the tank go in immediately afterward, and having half a dozen enemies utterly ignore him because they're howling for your blood. TA is definitely THE tank-saving set!

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Zone Giant Monsters are getting the buff.

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It may just be Pinnacle, but I'm seeing a LOT less giant monster interest now than there ever was in the past. Lusca stays up until she despawns. Jurassik has become more of a waypoint in Crey's Folly than anything to consider attacking. Adamastor? He's part of the landscape.

Point here is that it's already getting very difficult to get enough people to defeat giant monsters NOW. I don't see how making them tougher is going to improve the waning interest, supposed increased "rewards" or not. You may want to go play with your datamines some more, because I think you're making a mistake with this buff.

Minor correction, Dark Pit appears to be Mag 2. I've been told that Mag 1 doesn't stun anything, but regardless of the mag, the guide itself doesn't change because it still does what it's intended to for this build, stun minions.

So... are you ready to break all of the rules and shatter the boundaries between ATs? Fed up with being a buffbot? Looking for something a little more exciting than throwing one blast after another? Longing to play a brute but don't have a copy of CoV, or haven't had the urge to play it yet?

Welcome, then, to the life of a Kinetics scrapper. From here on out, the path you travel will be frantic, frenetic, and frighteningly enjoyable.

Before I go any further, I will warn you, this is not a character for someone who wants to be "uber". You will not be making scrappers wet the bed, tankers cry themselves to sleep, or teams wishing you would just stop for a minute to let them kill ONE thing. A Kinetics scrapper is not a tank-mage. What it is, though, is a fun and exciting change from the standard AT definitions. It is a challenge, one that you may not find to be enjoyable. And it is, at times, dreadfully tedious. But if you're interested in playing something a little different and dedicated to the concept, it is quite rewarding.

Why a Kinetics defender played as a scrapper, instead of simply making a scrapper? For the challenge, first and foremost. There's an element of risk that goes deeper than what true scrappers face, but it's also a matter of throwing away the conventional views of AT definitions and moving beyond. It's also a variety of scrapper that takes a bit from several different sets and blends it all together, giving you damage resistance, healing, and defense all in the one package.

Why Kinetics? Kinetics is, by design, a melee-oriented set. The heal is targetted and fires off at melee range of the target. The same is true of the endurance recovery power. The crowning power, Fulcrum Shift, gives its greatest benefit at melee range. Melee is Kinetics' niche, where it shines the brightest, and is the foundation for this build. Kinetics is what allows a defender to become a scrapper, something that no other primary can achieve.

How does this compare with a "real" scrapper? In some ways, it doesn't and never will. When you're on a team, your scrapping teammates are generally going to be receiving the same buffs that you will be using for yourself, benefiting from the same heals that you'll be using to save your skin, etc., and as such, you will ALWAYS be second fiddle to the true scrapper in a team. Solo, however, a Kinetics scrapper can come very close to achieving the same general efficiency as a true scrapper, and as such, does very well in either type of situation.

What are the caveats? First and foremost, your damage output prior to the mid-30s will be rather unimpressive. That's not to say that it's not worth the effort, simply that it will require dedication to get to a point at which you finally feel like you've "made it". Second, the damage resistance is simulated, meaning, it's not true damage resistance even though it works in the same manner. You're decreasing enemy damage, not increasing your resistance, so every time you step into the ring with your enemies, their opening strikes will be at full strength, even if you're fully buffed for damage from the previous spawn. And third, it can feel slow to some people. You have to spend a lot of time buffing and healing to get to a point of laying waste to those before you, and some people will not have the patience to do this. AND... any melee attacks you get before the 40s are entirely smashing damage, which can be very annoying when you encounter enemies with resistance to smashing.

That said, under the right conditions and with the right combination of powers, you can become a veritable monster of melee. Your damage buff/debuff powers will serve to improve your survivability while also turning your fists into those deadly weapons you're hoping they can be. Your heal will be very good, very fast, and very close to allowing you to put Regen to shame. Under the right conditions, and with patience.

Having achieved level 50 with a Kinetic/Electrical Blast scrapper, 41+ of which was almost entirely solo, I've learned a few things along the way that will help all of you with dreams of becoming the scrappers that other scrappers look upon with surprise and a bit of respect.

The first and most important thing to know is that Electrical Blast is NOT the best secondary for a Kinetics scrapper. If I were to start anew with Electron Girl, my choice for the secondary would be Dark Blast.

Strange selection? Actually, no. The original reasoning for opting into Electrical Blast was Tesla Cage and Voltaic Sentinal. This turned out to be a mistake, one that I attempted to rectify through numerous respecs and changing the focus of Electron Girl's defensive abilities and attacks, but in the end, the conclusion that Dark Blast would've been the proper choice was the only answer that remained.

Why Dark Blast? Simply put, stuns. The absolute living horror of your existance as a Kinetics scrapper is being stunned over and over again. Even if you manage to avoid being perma-stunned (it has not been removed from the game, simply toned down on most, not all, enemies), the continual detoggling will drive you utterly mad. Nothing in the Electrical Blast set, or Kinetics, or any of the pools, gives any reasonable and practical protection from stuns. Dark Blast, however, has a single power to offer that can turn the game around for the Kinetics Scrapper... Dark Pit. Yes, Dark Pit, the AoE stun. With one power, you turn your greatest weakness into your most effective and worthwhile defense. Since you have no status protection, you have to do unto the enemy before he does unto you, and since, in nearly all cases, he has no status protection (note: this is NOT true of PvP, do NOT go into a PvP zone with this kind of build and expect to "pwnz0r nubs")...

Dark Blast also offers a few other powers of utility to the Kinetics scrapper. Tenebrous Tentacles can be used in concert with Dark Pit to both prevent the enemies from wandering away, as they typically do when stunned, and soften up the spawn for later destruction. Life Drain, while rather weak in both damage and healing, makes a nice compliment to your regular attacks (especially when you factor in that it is not smashing damage) as well as supplimenting Transfusion. Torrent is another very utilitarian power, giving you both a small bonus to your defense (via the accuracy debuff) and knockback that you can use to get something off of you, chain knockdowns, or move enemies to your preferred fighting location (such as a wall or corner). With practically all of Dark Blast's powers having an accuracy debuff as a secondary effect, there's really not much that won't be of some use in this set.

But, wait, Dark Pit is only a Mag 1 stun, it doesn't affect lieutanants or bosses! This is true, but it still removes any and all minions it hits from the battle, allowing you to focus your attention on the lieutenants and/or bosses, and if some or most of the enemies aren't hitting you, you have more time and flexibility in taking care of the ones that are. Additionally, the stun in Dark Pit stacks with any other stun, and as you'll see later, you'll have enough stuns to take even bosses out of the fight.

Lastly, you will rely heavily on pool powers to make this build work like a proper scrapper. Scrappers use one or two ranged attacks, but they do their work in melee, and you will, too. Air Superiority is required, and you'll need at least one other melee attack, Flurry being the recommended choice. That's two of your pool selections done, leaving you with only two remaining. The Leaping pool is highly recommended, unless you enjoy being knocked flat on your back on a regular basis and/or immobilized/held at other times. Your fourth pool is up to you, and some, such as Fighting or Medicine may fit your style of play better, but I recommend the Fitness pool. Despite having the option to do without Stamina, due to getting Transferance at level 26, you will most likely be running 2 or more toggles at almost all times, as well as using most of your buffs in an almost continuous sequence, will be a very heavy drain on your endurance. Stamina will allow you to spend at least a little less time "working" and a little more time "playing". We'll cover the other options in the pools you'll be taking later in the guide.

Hang on a second... Flurry? Yes, Flurry. When you finally get SOs and have grown accustomed to stacking Siphon Speed on yourself, you'll find that Flurry's animation time perfectly compliments Air Superiority's recharge time with a single recharge SO. Flurry also has the highest damage index in the pools (3.18 versus Boxing's 2.1111 and Kick's 2.3333 or Jump Kick's 2.778), as well as DoT. Though much maligned, DoT can be a significant help when facing enemies such as Life Mages or Crey who rez or heal, who will often attempt to activate an interruptable power in the middle of your attack. The DoT will prevent that power from successfully going off. Flurry's small chance to stun also stacks with the stun from Dark Pit, allowing you to affect lieutenants. If you absolutely can't stand to be rooted in one spot for the few seconds it takes for Flurry's animation to complete, though, feel free to work in Boxing or Kick, or both, as replacements.

Jump Kick, however, is NOT recommended under any circumstances. The knock* bug and longer-than-Flurry animation make it extremely dangerous to use and barely worth the endurance cost due to the comparatively low damage.

So let's get on with the build, shall we? This outline will be from the perspective of taking the Fitness and Speed pools. Other options will be covered afterward.

The basic outline will be to take and slot your primaries, but focus on the powers that will buff you or debuff enemies, and leave the team buffs for later. Transfusion, Siphon Power, and Siphon Speed are essential, take them and slot them heavily as early as possible to prepare for DOs and SOs (strongest emphasis on Siphon Speed for stacking recharge, which will make ALL of your powers available more often). Air Superiority and Flurry are your primary attacks, take them and slowly slot them (Siphon Power will allow you to go without heavy slotting for a while).

You want to get most of your basics in by level 22, so you'll be working in Combat Jumping (immob protection), Swift (combat maneuverability), Health (improved recovery), Stamina (toggle and buff chain mitigation), Super Jump (to build up to Acrobatics), and Acrobatics. This will give you a solid foundation to build upon for the later levels.

After level 22, the remaining powers can be taken in whatever order you're most comfortable with, but getting Dark Pit before the 30s is very strongly recommended (when you'll start to face off against enemies with lots of stunning attacks, such as Crey). Dark Pit is your strongest defense, get it and slot it fully and use it as your alpha in every encounter. If you have Stamina, you may find Transferance to be optional, but it can definitely save you a great deal of hassle, and it's very handy on teams. Fulcrum Shift should be taken IMMEDIATELY and slotted as soon as you hit 33 and 34.

If you stick with your Kinetics scrapper long enough to hit the 40s, the payoff is huge. The Electric Mastery APP is THE APP for you. You get a very good attack available at level 41, Thunder Strike, which has a stun component that also stacks with that of Dark Pit and/or Flurry, finally allowing you to really lock down bosses alone, and Charged Armor is absolutely wonderful. The other two powers, Electric Fence and Power Sink, are nice extras, but not vital (unless you skipped Transferance, in which case, Power Sink is a very good choice). Other APP options would be Dark Mastery, for Oppressive Gloom, or Power Mastery for Total Focus. However, I would point out that this type of scrapper falls short without a "big" attack, which is lacking in Dark Mastery and unavailable until level 47 in Power Mastery. Oppressive Gloom will definitely enhance your defensive capabilities to an impressive level, but it will require much more work in the long run, since you'll be limited to the few pool attacks and a blast to deal damage with. Total Focus is slightly more deadly than Thunder Strike, but this attack is much better suited to a respec build due to the extremely late portion of the game when it becomes available. By the time you have Total Focus slotted and fully usable, you're basically finished. Recommended APP, therefore, is Electric Mastery, for Thunder Strike, your final and best scrapper attack.

Also, you get two VERY NICE temporary powers that will significantly help later in the game. Iron Blade, from one of the Croatoa arcs, is a wonderful attack that you can keep for 3 days. With Siphon Power and Siphon Speed, it can turn you from an average scrapper into a death machine of the most amazing kind. Similarly, the Sands of Mu, also available for 3 days, will leave your jaw on the floor when you one-shot two or three minions at once with it (after buffing up with Siphon Power). Space these two powers out, don't take them both at once, so you'll have 6 seperate days of glorious scraptasticism. Plan on soloing while you have these powers so you can get the full benefit out of them (you'll find that you generally won't have time to use them while teaming, and you WILL miss them when they're gone. take the time to enjoy them). The Nemesis Staff is a great third temp power, and works very well when you're buffed, but since your focus is on scrapping, I'm putting less emphasis on this one.

Here is one proposed build that takes it up to level 44. The final powers are left to up to you to pick, as you'll have a better idea of what you need or want at that point.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name:
Level: 47
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Kinetics
Secondary: Dark Blast
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01) --&gt; Transfusion==&gt; Acc(1)Acc(3)Heal(5)Heal(7)Heal(15)Rechg(23)
01) --&gt; Dark Blast==&gt; Acc(1)
02) --&gt; Siphon Power==&gt; Acc(2)Acc(3)Rechg(5)Rechg(7)Rechg(15)
04) --&gt; Gloom==&gt; Acc(4)Dmg(36)Dmg(36)Dmg(37)Rechg(37)
06) --&gt; Air Superiority==&gt; Acc(6)Dmg(11)Dmg(17)Dmg(19)Rechg(23)
08) --&gt; Siphon Speed==&gt; Acc(8)Acc(9)Rechg(9)Rechg(11)Rechg(13)
10) --&gt; Flurry==&gt; Acc(10)Dmg(13)Dmg(17)Dmg(19)Rechg(39)
12) --&gt; Swift==&gt; Run(12)Run(40)Run(46)
14) --&gt; Combat Jumping==&gt; DefBuf(14)Rechg(42)
16) --&gt; Health==&gt; Heal(16)Heal(40)Heal(46)
18) --&gt; Super Jump==&gt; Jump(18)
20) --&gt; Stamina==&gt; EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --&gt; Acrobatics==&gt; EndRdx(22)EndRdx(37)
24) --&gt; Dark Pit==&gt; Acc(24)Acc(25)DisDur(25)DisDur(29)DisDur(31)Rechg(31)
26) --&gt; Transference==&gt; Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)
28) --&gt; Speed Boost==&gt; EndMod(28)EndMod(34)
30) --&gt; Increase Density==&gt; Rechg(30)DmgRes(34)
32) --&gt; Fulcrum Shift==&gt; Acc(32)Acc(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(34)
35) --&gt; Tenebrous Tentacles==&gt; Acc(35)Acc(36)TH_DeBuf(39)
38) --&gt; Torrent==&gt; Acc(38)Acc(39)TH_DeBuf(40)
41) --&gt; Thunder Strike==&gt; Acc(41)Acc(42)Rechg(42)Rechg(43)Rechg(43)EndRdx(43)
44) --&gt; Charged Armor==&gt; DmgRes(44)DmgRes(45)DmgRes(45)EndRdx(45)EndRdx(46)
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01) --&gt; Sprint==&gt; Run(1)
01) --&gt; Brawl==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Vigilance==&gt; Empty(1)
02) --&gt; Rest==&gt; Empty(2)
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A few explanations of slotting choices -

<ul type="square">[*]Dark Pit: Short duration, long recharge. Three disorient SOs will increase the duration to 20 seconds, which should be more than enough time for you to sufficiently debuff everything enough to ignore them when the stun wears off. Tossing Tenebrous Tentacles on after this will allow you to lock everything in place, and thus avoid them coming to you with their own melee stuns, and if used just before Dark Pit wears off, may be enough to immobilize them long enough to get a second Dark Pit off if necessary. Again, though, 20 seconds should be plenty of time for you to get your debuffs/buffs going and start working on the task of defeating them, in relative safety.
[*]2 Accuracy in Primaries/Critical Powers: Missing when you're on a team is usually not much of a problem. Missing when you're solo and facing a horde of angry foes tends to be bad. 2 accuracy SOs in Transfusion, Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Transfusion, Fulcrum Shift, Dark Pit, and Thunder Strike (missing with your best attack is just painful). Tenebrous Tentacles and Torrent slotting is optional, but you have the slots to spare by then and they're powers you really want to hit as many enemies with as possible.
[*]Slotting Swift and Health: You'll find that combat maneuverability and speed will be helpful, and running one more toggle (Sprint) can seriously task your endurance bar at times. Health's recovery buff acts in concert with your heal(s) to give you improved survivability, so it's also worth slotting. These, like Tenebrous Tentacles and Torrent, are optional, but reasonable places to put the slots when available.
[*]Slotting Gloom: Even true scrappers get options for ranged attacks, and yours is worth slotting and using. It also helps fill out your attack chain for those rare moments when you have nothing else to throw at an enemy, as well as give you something other than smashing damage to work with.
[*]Speed Boost and Increase Density: Sooner or later, you'll end up on teams, either out of boredom or necessity. Teams like SB. Teams like ID when they can find a kin to use it. Swap in IR for ID, if you like, or take IR as one of your final selections, it's another power that people appreciate and will make you popular at parties (or Hami raids). One additional slot in each, which gives you two endmod SOs in SB for teams with almost unlimited endurance, and fast recharge and a fair resistance buff in ID, are nice extras to put in when you have the available slots.
[*]No damage in Thunder Strike: The biggest problem that you face isn't low hit points, or lack of defenses, it's poor damage. Slotting TS for damage would make it more powerful, but so will FS and Siphon Power. Slot it for recharge so you can use it frequently and rely on your buffs to make up for the missing damage SOs.
[*]Heavy reliance on recharge SOs: This build is all about speed. Speed lets you stack more buffs, heal faster, attack more often, etc. Speed, speed, speed. If you think Hasten would serve you better, by all means, work it in, but slotting heavily for recharge and stacking Siphon Speed buffs on top has proven to be very sufficient. As it is, without Hasten, there's almost no time after level 32 when you DON'T have something useful and desirable recharged and ready to use. Hasten would have some of your powers with the longest recharge times available a bit sooner, but there's only so much time you can spend buffing. Buff, fight, be happy.
[*]Damage Mitigation: Regardless of how well you build, you're still going to be taking damage at some point. Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift will reduce that significantly, as will your APP resistance power, and Transfusion should be capable of healing whatever damage you can't avoid or decrease, but if you find yourself in need of something more, Repel may suit your need, provided you have a solid vertical surface to push your enemies up against. Having tested Repel, and Whirlwind, I found them to be counter to the basic nature of scrapping, as well as costly from an endurance standpoint, but they do serve their purposes, damage mitigation, well enough, so if you need one, Repel would be the recommended selection.[/list]
Other pool selections: <ul type="square">[*]Flurry could reasonably be replaced with Boxing/Kick from the fighting pool, which would give you more attacks, albeit at lower damage, but you may be able to make up for the lower damage with a higher attack rate. This also open up Tough. The resistance is minimal, but it may be useful at the lower levels. Be prepared to pay the toggle cost, though. Weave is not on the list of recommended powers, due to the fact that it is, in reality, Combat Jumping sans jump buff plus significantly higher endurance cost. Do not waste a power selection on Weave.
[*]Fitness pool may be discarded with a respec, or you can work up to 26 without it, but toggles and chains of buffs aren't endurance-free, so be prepared to deal with that.
[*]You may find that, if you're skilled enough, you have no need for Combat Jumping or Acrobatics. If you consistantly get your alphas fired off and the enemies debuffed sufficiently, feel free to leave the Leaping pool out of your build. I personally found knockback to be far, far too irritating and dangerous (every second you're lying on your back is a second you're not defeating something that's attacking you, or reducing/healing incoming damage) to skip Acrobatics.
[*]If you do have a remaining pool selection available, one option could be to take Medicine. Stimulant is a suitable replacement for Increase Density, and will open up Aid Self and, if you want a rez, Resuscitate. While I personally feel that Transfusion does the job of healing well enough, Aid Self is certainly a reasonable choice if you wish to play a Regen-style scrapper. Slotting for Aid Self in this case should include a minimum of 2 interrupt reduction enhancements, as you will likely be in combat in most situations when a need for it would arise.
[*]The Presence pool could, possibly, be used to suppliment Dark Pit for soft control. The recharge times on Intimidate and Invoke Panic, as well as the endurance costs, are very prohibitive, and both powers require heavy slotting to be efficient. With enough slots, though, either or both can fill out the time when Dark Pit has not yet recharged and the stun has worn off.
[*]Since you're already invested in the Flight pool, Hover and Fly are both options if you have a free power selection and want another method of travel. Siphon Speed does improve the speed of both, and Inertial Reduction causes Fly to behave like max-speed Hover.[/list]

The last word received on any potential buffs for Hover, or any of the other pre-travel movement powers, has been "No."

According to the developer with whom I spoke, the reasoning is that buffing Hover, Hurdle, Swift, Sprint, Quickness, Combat Jumping, or any other pre-travel movement power will permit players to create characters capable of bypassing Suppression.

The original excuse for failing to buff the pre-travel movement powers when ED was being implimented was, according to Statesman, "To ensure that movement buffs would always be necessary and appreciated". When it was pointed out that movement buffs are, in reality, limited to a very select few powersets, and that said buffs were no more available or less welcome in the pre-ED game, Statesman agreed that the failure to buff the powers in question was an oversight.

So the answer was originally "Yes, we'll see what we can do", but is now, "No, we think Hover is overpowered".

To expand on this, I made it a point to mention that Suppression was currently EASILY avoidable with Inertial Reduction, Speed Boost, Siphon Speed, or SR scrappers slotting 3 Run Speed SOs in Swift, Sprint, and Quickness, as well as anyone slotting 3 Jump SOs in Hurdle and 2 Jump SOs in Sprint. The response to this was, "Good points, but that doesn't mean we agree that Hover (my note here, a power that REQUIRES a MINIMUM of 3 slots just to keep up with UNSLOTTED SPRINT) should be buffed."

They are attempting to find a method of implimenting Suppression across the board, at which time they "may take another look at the powers".

In other words, don't hold your breath.

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And why scrappers? Not to be rude, but their "role" is not defensive...

[/ QUOTE ]

Because their role is offensive, and it's difficult to be offensive when you're dead.

Well, unless you're dead and stinky.

[ QUOTE ]
we need some buffing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is anyone else suddenly hearing Pauly Shore chanting, "B-b-b-b-buff the wood, buff the wood!" in their head?

&gt;.&gt;

&lt;.&lt;

-_-

STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!

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By extension, will defense inspirations also work the same way?

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I'm going to take a guess and say that the answer will be no.

And that's the way I believe it should be. Part of the problem with the defense-based ATs has been that their core protections have been overshadowed by practically everything else in the game. Inspirations alone were more effective than most of the primaries. That's not fair to the ATs in question.

I believe a more interesting and useful query would be whether or not defense buffs in other powers, such as Weave/Combat Jumping/Hover, or bubbles, will be granted similar scaling. With stackable defenses, that would allow defense-based ATs to remain relevant while also providing ATs with little or no defense some measure of protection.

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AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

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I didn't mind having to team to deal with AVs, but thank you nonetheless. This is a greatly appreciated change that will allow soloers to feel more at home in the game (me included), and mitigate a great deal of the problem faced when teams aren't working well together.

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In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

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And thank you again. Extra incentive on AVs isn't necessary, but definitely appreciated.

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heres a hint, if there is a white powder on the package, DONT OPEN IT! call the bomb squad or you'll get an ambush of terrorists.

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I think I got trenchfoot instead. STUPID TEMP POWERS!

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Some people in game have been saying that you get a badge for 500 presents collected.

Does anyone know if this is true?

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Absolutely and categorically untrue. I've opened over 2100 by now, there is ONE badge for opening presents - Toy Collector.

I did, however, get a rather unpleasant rash from #1883. -_-

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Okay now based off that chart

How can I make a NEW character, run up to PRISONERS in breakout and miss 10 times in a row?

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To expand on that, why are we seeing streaks at all on characters with accuracy SOs slotted in powers with the base 75% accuracy (in other words, not powers with accuracy penalties)? Regardless of whether accuracy SOs are additive (75% + 33% = 108%) or multiplicative (75% * 1.33 = 100%), there should never be more than a single miss versus even level enemies, yet I don't think there's a single person who plays these games who can say they've never missed twice in a row under those conditions.

Another question that needs to be addressed is that of odd streaks, powers missing not on every attack, but instead missing attacks at a much higher than normal ratio for several minutes, or entire missions, then returning to a "normal" hit scenario.

[ QUOTE ]
I hit 29275 times.
I missed 9642 times.

That is a 75.22% overall to hit chance against an even level critter with no defense powers.

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Didn't happen to get a log of miss/hit streaks, I'm guessing? A problem a lot of us are seeing is sudden, inexplicable chains of misses throughout one or more missions, then back to "normal" accuracy for a while. There also seems to be some discrepancy in accuracy versus foes in the close +/- ranges.

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We are Tanks not tanks... notice I captialized Tank. Tank is the CoH archetype. tank is the MMO class/role of meatshield. I want to be a Tank not a tank.

I wanna be a fighter... one who is touger than he is strong. Slow and powerfull with a heavy fist and slow feet. The big guy with tough armor and a strong arm. I dont want to be a wall of hitpoints walking around screaming obscenities at folks and relying on people to keep me alive.

I want to Tank not tank.

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Well, some of us are 6'5" masochistic dominatrices, light and nimble on our feet, who run into the middle of a sea of pain and misery, and deal a little back out, simply because that's what we enjoy.

But that's neither here nor there.

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What should be the ATs and Powersets used in the "fifth wheel" slot to substitute for the tank? While I think it is a very good idea to see other support ATs placed in this slot, the role of damage-dealing should not be neglected.

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Dwarves, since they're designed for tanking.

I'd also suggest anyone with pets, as they're commonly used as pocket tanks.

Controllers/defenders with good mass holds/debuffs, so their efficiency at damage mitigation can be measured and compared against a tanker's efficiency at mitigating damage via refocusing of enemy attention on them instead of teammates.

And a scrapper to represent each of the scrapper secondaries, for the same reason.

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I am not trying to prove anything, specifically. If I was, I would be worried about biasing the test. What I am trying to do is get an unbiased test under very controlled circumstances to see if anything is really obvious.

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Okay, make room for me. I've got a 50 invuln/ss. If the tests aren't limited to tanks only, but more of an examination of how the tanker role is filled and what ATs/powersets might overshadow it, then my 32 warshade (tri-form) and 41 dark/dark defender (pet/pocket tank) would also be good test subjects. And I can throw in the 33 TA/A defender for team filler or whatever (which would also be a good area of study, finding out whether or not tanking requires a healing defender).

[ QUOTE ]
Luminara, from measuring spawns on teams like this, the total number of enemies in the spawn was more like 16, with 10 of them being minions, 4 or so lieutenants and a couple bosses. They would not have been yellow to States, but red and purple under normal circumstances since the mission belonged to a level 50, with a team of 7, the difficulty would have been kicked up by +1 and it was run on rugged for another +1. The minions would have been orange for the mission holder, with them being +3 to States's tank.

You have to remember that a team of 7 would normally spawn 21 enemies, but that bosses and lieutenants count for more than one when they calculate it.

Nowhere near 30 and at a much higher level than you're thinking, in other words.

[/ QUOTE ]

Still, the results from his tests were more than a little underwhelming.

Aggroing only 5-6? If that's really the case, then it indicates that he either wasn't running Invincibility or wasn't using Taunt AND only used Brawl and his default secondary set attack. I mean, come on, if he'd been using his tools, he should've had ALL the aggro. Invincibility alone would generate enough aggro to get the entire spawn, briefly, and from that point on, he'd only have to keep up steady attacks to keep most of them on him. If he wasn't running Invincibility, then his only means of gathering aggro would've been Taunt and attacks, but even then, he should've ended up with many more.

What I finally realized was that the only way Statesman could've ended up with 5-6 foes on him, and ONLY those 5-6, was if he Taunted them away from the main spawn and left the rest for the team to deal with. Taunt is an AoE, so if he did use it, he would've always drawn extra aggro. Punchvoke is an AoE, so what he was attacking with also would've held his aggro. He should've gradually built up the entire spawn around him, but that's not what happened.

And the argument that there was plenty of room to let a battle rage with the entire team spread out... no, because the controller ate it when she aggroed another spawn, so that indicates that there wasn't enough room to move around. He should've had the entire spawn slavering on him, trying to rip him to pieces, but he somehow managed to get away with just a third?

That's just plain pootastic.

And then there's the build speculations, and the suggestions that he wouldn't've been able to tank like a true 48-50 tank would. That's not actually the case, though, since he was trying to prove that ED wasn't hurting tanks. At 32, he had 30 slots to work with, EASILY enough to 3-slot all of his passives, and 4-6 slot Unyielding and Temp Invuln, and still have plently of slots left for DP, his attacks, and any pool powers he took. The fact that he was capable of surviving with nothing but DP for the entire length of the fight (see below on why this is important) gives a pretty good indication that he was at or near his max potential S/L res (not capped, but the max he could reach with 3 slots or res enhs/power), and maybe using Lucks and some def-bonus powers (such as Combat Jumping) as well. So level differences really don't mean anything.

Finally, the Dull Pain thing really sank in today and connected the last dots. I was thinking about it today, and I realized that even if he threw 3 recharge SOs in DP, he was looking at nearly 3 minutes between each use, and since he stated that he had to use it several times (several being more than two), that means that fight went on for ~9 minutes or longer.

Even if he had Adrenaline Boost on him, that's still a loooooooooong time between DPs, and the fight still had to have gone on for almost 7 minutes.

That's just plain insane. 7-9+ minutes to take out 5-6 enemies, even if they were orange-red? Even if he were only using the first couple of attacks in his secondary, AND they were only slotted with a single accuracy SO (if they weren't slotted with at least that, he wouldn't've even held the aggro on those 5-6), AND he didn't have Fortitude on him, he should've cleaned them out in less than 5 minutes. Anything better than unslotted Brawl would've been enough to deal with them faster than that. Heck, my kin/elec defender can handle an orange-red minion in under a minute, without ANY damage enhancements OR using Siphon Power, and she's only level 7.

And what were his teammates doing while he played pattycake with those enemies? Even post-ED, there's NO way it was taking the blasters/scrappers 7-9 minutes to handle 2-3 enemies apiece. I could see them taking 2 minutes, at most, and then spending another 2 minutes helping the other teammates clear out their "shares".

Nothing about this "test" feels right. The build level was high enough to be capable, but the sheer length of the described combat was WAY out of the ballpark and the incredibly poor aggro management suggests serious flaws in how the test was conducted.

Something else just occured to me while I was posting in another thread. I'll just add it here, because I think it's something Statesman, or someone at Cryptic, might want to respond to.

I never actually stopped to count when I was playing my tank, but based on Cryptic's usual "3 enemies to 1 hero" response, I'd figure that should come to around 7 (3 enemies/hero, 7 in the team, 21 total, 1/3rd of which would be 7).

That's even more worrisome and shameful than I'd originally realized. He was "worried" while tanking 7, leaving 14 for his teammates to deal with, and had to use Dull Pain "several times" in order to complete the battle.

Let's be a bit more generous, though, and presume that there were as many as 30 enemies in the spawn. That would still only be 10 that Statesman was tanking, leaving 20 (yellow-con, definitely, and more likely orange-con, due to how the game scales enemies for teams, even at Heroic) for his teammates to deal with. That works out to some having 3 enemies to defeat, others having 4, and the requirements for those defeats being harsher than normal (again, standard Villain/Hero ratio is 3:1, even-con).

Not good. Even worse for team members with slow damage output or low hit points, and players who can't or don't want to play at levels of difficulty that pit them against +1-3 foes.

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree with one point here...stating that you can imitate defense levels with insp's isnt very valid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Isn't it? If I have a power that can debuff enemy accuracy by 33%, and the defense I can acquire via powers and inspirations is capped at 65%, I've still managed to surpass a tank's maximum defense potential.

And even if accuracy debuffs aren't available, other powers are just as effective. Powers that slow recharge times effectively give you higher defense (defense lowers chance to hit, reduced recharge times lowers the number of times that an attack can be made, end result is the same), holds/sleeps/confuse give effectively 100% defense versus how-ever many are held/slept/confused, and pets can be used to grant a brief 100% defense by simply using them to tank/take aggro briefly. Heck, one of the first powers available to a Force Field defender/controller is Personal Force Field, which is a better defense than tanks can get without buffs.

Resistance? The lower-tier inspirations are pretty useless, but enough of them, or a few of the better ones, can get you up to a reasonable level of res. Couple that with some damage reduction powers (like Trick Arrow's Poison Arrow or Dark Miasma's Darkest Night/Twilight Grasp), and, again, any AT can beat a tank's res.

So yes, it is possible to equal, or even surpass, tanks' defenses. I do apologize for not clarifying that players do have to use powers, or be in teams with powers, that assist in hitting or passing tank def caps. Without at least some other means of increasing def/res, you are correct, other ATs can't quite reach tank-level def/res.