Mad Grim

It has a higher damage per cast cycle than Precise Strike, and therefore is useful early on. You can also use it to fill out attack chains and get the form bonuses faster.

I'd actually recommend going redside for Mace Mastery or Mu Master and then going back to hero. Mace gives a defensive shield, Power Boost (though I can't think of any Trap powers that benefit too much... Triage Beacon?) and a wide area Immob. Mu has a bit smaller Immob that has -KB, which is a godsend with bots. It'll keep the big guy from blasting the enemy out of the flaming deathtrap he just made.

If you are adamant at staying Blueside (curse ye heroes!) I'd say Charge Master. It has EMP, which is one of the three best holds in the game (though I recall this version being a disorientate). The other two are EMP Arrow and Volcanic Gasses. The shield is resist based, but with Bot/Trap you should be able to soft cap without a APP/PPP shield.

As for the pets, when they have defense it is almost universally Positional or both positional and typed. Ninjas and Beasts both have inherent positional defense. Bots and Zombies don't have any base defense, but the defense the protector provides is positional. FFG provides positional, as well as Maneuvers. If I recall you can slot RIP IOs in /Traps (could be wrong, haven't tried yet). All the pet unique aura procs (Which total 5 and wind up giving: 10% def all, another 15% to AoE, 20% res all) actually affect BASE def which is extremely rare and the only case I can think of where it is so. This means it helps against everything, even attacks with no type or position. Say, Hamidon.

So yes, with an MM it will always be Positional defense for the pets. With Bot/Trap you can cap all the pets fairly easily. For yourself... the two softcapped MMs I have are through S/L/E. Both use Mace Mastery, though one is /Time so that is as much for Power Boost as anything. With IOs you can build Bot/Trap to positional soft cap without the pool shields. I'd recommend consulting someone else on that bit.

EDIT: To the guy who thinks Triage Beacon is horrible- it is better than nothing, which is what FF has. Also, Power Pools exist for a reason, pick up Heal Other and slap some interrupt reduction in it.

Fine, this then- Everything within fifteen feet is constantly hit by Lift. So they are all propelled up and slammed into the ground. If you want them to really fly you can slot KB enhancements.

I believe he is talking about the bug that makes them run after ambushes, even if they are on the other side of the map, and even if they are set to passive. This certainly is a bug.

Ah, good to know. Are these things listed anywhere?

Yea, personally I've never been a big fan of tanking myself. I've never gotten a tanker or defender past level 30, which can be explained by me just not caring about other players enough. There is probably nothing that could make me like either of those ATs.

That said, I know there are plenty of people who don't feel that way, and for them increased damage would be a godsend.

If their damage modifier was raised to that of a brute, they would still have nowhere near brute damage due to lacking Fury, which makes up more than half their damage a good deal of the time.

At one point there was no aggro cap, I am unaware of any other caps between that point and the current number. Entirely possible that I'm wrong, wasn't around then.

And yes, that sounds nice. Will definitely give them some advantage over brutes. Might have to take some reworking though, as far as I'm aware the cap is currently static across all ATs. May have to do more than change some numbers.

Current aggro cap is 17, I believe.

Before demons they were broken, just differently broken. Before demons they all preferred range, which meant that melee pets with a few range attacks (Grave Knights, Jounin, etc) stayed at range forever. When demons were introduced it reversed this, causing all pets to prefer melee.

I prefer the newer broken version, since at least with it all pets use all their attacks, rather than cycling only their ranged ones.

I'll do it for you :] Bonus: Ninjas, beasts, necro.


One of the main problems with a lot of sets is the lack of a place to put RIP IOs. So many of my suggestions incorporate this.

With Ninjas I think that, as well as giving a tad more survivability, their T7 power should be changed. Perhaps it is just because I always pair nins with an active secondary, but I stop using Smoke Flash in the mid 20's. It costs too much endurance. You could conceivably give them something like Gang War instead, with a few alterations. For instance- ninjas strike from the shadows, yes? Then make the ninjas that appear have Hidden on, and give them only melee attacks. This way, they all strike out with a critical at the same time. Have them stick around about 2/3 the time of the Gang War thugs. Give them higher damage but lower health. In this way, not only do Ninjas gain a place to put more of those pet uniques, but they further cement their place as the MM damage kings.

Well that's my first idea for them, my second is this: Giving each ninja the inherent Conservation of Ninjitsu, which works thusly: In any martial arts fight, each side has only a finite amount of ninjitsu in a given encounter. Therefore, one ninja is death incarnate, while an army is nothing but cannon fodder. So give all the ninjas a weakened Vengeance ability that goes off when they die, much like Nemesis lieutenants. The fewer the ninjas remaining, the harder they are to kill and the harder they hit. This effectively turns their squishiness into a weapon.

Installing one or both of these suggestions would make Ninjas an actual force to be reckoned with, as they should be. If both, then of course the extra T7 ninjas should NOT have the vengeance power. Also, make the Oni better at prioritizing, either take away his sword or teach him to use it with one hand and throw fire with the other.

For Mercenaries, Serum is almost universally regarded as suckish. I've personally never tried Mercs so can't comment. However, here be an idea to replace it: Air Strike. You hear a plane fly overhead and bombs drop on parachutes. Each bomb acts like a pseudo-pet so you can slot RIP IOs in it. The bombs do high damage and knockdown, so provides some mitigation too. They would take a bit of time reaching the ground, and would probably be used like Seeker Drones- and alpha absorber. Make the Soldier's Full Auto a wider cone. Shorten the recharge on all of Spec Ops' support abilities by a ton. Take Flash Bang down to 35 seconds and increase the stun. Change Rifle Butt to the ranged stun in Assault Rifle so they run in less. Tear Gas should have a recharge of ~60 seconds and the damage debuff should last the same. Increase the damage on SCAR Snipe. Increase the Immob on Web Grenade so it can be perma without enhancements. If these guys are supposed to be the support then make them actually be support! Also, you should probably change all of the knockback to knockdown, the scatter really hurts damage. Most of their AoE is cones.

Necro is mostly fine, though conceivably you could lower the recharge on Soul Extraction and increase the time they stick around, giving you the oppurtunity to have, say, two at all times. This would give the set even more control and damage, as well as more to-hit debuffs and survivability. Give the zombies Lethal resistance.

Beast's T7 you really couldn't change without changing the basis for the entire set, unless instead of replacing it you are just adding something in. Perhaps change the Hawk in Call Hawk to a pseudo-pet so you could slot in that. Give all but the Dire Wolf a Flashing Steel clone on a very shot recharge (Reppu's idea, one that I like), and give the Dire Wolf's PBAoE a much shorter recharge (10 or 15 seconds) and more damage. This is really the only good AoE Beasts have, make it good enough to make up for it.

Completely! Blasters are fun enough that you don't notice how bad they are a lot of the time. One of the reasons there are so many of them.

Yes, Ninjas are incredibly aggressive, which is both a gift and a curse. Especially the Genin.

As for the lack of a place to put RIP IOs, I think that, as well as giving a tad more survivability, their T7 power should be changed. Perhaps it is just because I always pair nins with an active secondary, but I stop using Smoke Flash in the mid 20's. It costs too much endurance. You could conceivably give them something like Gang War instead, with a few alterations. For instance- ninjas strike from the shadows, yes? Then make the ninjas that appear have Hidden on, and give them only melee attacks. This way, they all strike out with a critical at the same time. Have them stick around about 2/3 the time of the Gang War thugs. Give them higher damage but lower health. In this way, not only do Ninjas gain a place to put more of those pet uniques, but they further cement their place as the MM damage kings.

Well that's my first idea for them, my second is this: Giving each ninja the inherent Conservation of Ninjitsu, which works thusly: In any martial arts fight, each side has only a finite amount of ninjitsu in a given encounter. Therefore, one ninja is death incarnate, while an army is nothing but cannon fodder. So give all the ninjas a weakened Vengeance ability that goes off when they die, much like Nemesis lieutenants. The fewer the ninjas remaining, the harder they are to kill and the harder they hit. This effectively turns their squishiness into a weapon.

Installing one or both of these suggestions would make Ninjas an actual force to be reckoned with, as they should be. If both, then of course the extra T7 ninjas should NOT have the vengeance power. Also, make the Oni better at prioritizing, either take away his sword or teach him to use it with one hand and throw fire with the other.

For Mercenaries, Serum is almost universally regarded as suckish. I've personally never tried Mercs so can't comment. However, here be an idea to replace it: Air Strike. You hear a plane fly overhead and bombs drop on parachutes. Each bomb acts like a pseudo-pet so you can slot RIP IOs in it. The bombs do high damage and knockdown, so provides some mitigation too. They would take a bit of time reaching the ground, and would probably be used like Seeker Drones- and alpha absorber. Make the Soldier's Full Auto a wider cone. Shorten the recharge on all of Spec Ops' support abilities by a ton. Take Flash Bang down to 35 seconds and increase the stun. Change Rifle Butt to the ranged stun in Assault Rifle so they run in less. Tear Gas should have a recharge of ~60 seconds and the damage debuff should last the same. Increase the damage on SCAR Snipe. Increase the Immob on Web Grenade so it can be perma without enhancements. If these guys are supposed to be the support then make them actually be support! Also, you should probably change all of the knockback to knockdown, the scatter really hurts damage. Most of their AoE is cones.

Necro is mostly fine, though conceivably you could lower the recharge on Soul Extraction and increase the time they stick around, giving you the oppurtunity to have, say, two at all times. This would give the set even more control and damage, as well as more to-hit debuffs and survivability. Give the zombies Lethal resistance.

Beast's T7 you really couldn't change without changing the basis for the entire set, unless instead of replacing it you are just adding something in. Perhaps change the Hawk in Call Hawk to a pseudo-pet so you could slot in that. Give all but the Dire Wolf a Flashing Steel clone on a very shot recharge (Reppu's idea, one that I like), and give the Dire Wolf's PBAoE a much shorter recharge (10 or 15 seconds) and more damage. This is really the only good AoE Beasts have, make it good enough to make up for it.

I also have an idea for bots which works like Hell On Earth only with gears, but they don't need it. Demons and Thugs of course also don't need improvements.

Anyhow, these are my ideas. And damn, this is the longest post I've made and the first time I've ever consulted City of Data.

If my nonexistent calculations are correct, this should put them all about the same level, or close enough that there is no longer a huge discrepancy.

EDIT: The reason I am suggesting new T7s instead of sumply making it possible to slot pets with the RIP IOs, is... well, that woul be two more slots that you would have to give up in your pets, who need all the slots they can get for acc, end, and damage. There are already three, with a fourth coming out. Sets with that can slot RIP IOs in their T7 would still have the advantage due to saving 5 (soon 6) slots in their main pets. Not only does this mean overall less powerful pets, but that you can't even benefit from set bonuses as well due to not having room to slot a full set.

What I've not gotten is why you'd do that. Unless you want whip attacks from Demon Summoning, it would always be better to play it on a def/cor. Better numbers, less end cost, they have more than three attacks, ect. I guess Photon Grenade is unique, but in no way worth it. Could have just made a BR/Traps cor or Traps/BR def

Yea, it is rather odd. I think mostly it came about due to people seeing the end drain, and thinking that therefore it must suck.

Or it's a conspiracy. Yea, probably that.

Hahahahah.

Hah.

Khelds are awesome, Dark Armor is epic.

As I understand, you shouldn't balance around Incarnate stuff. I-Trials are meant to be hard, that is their entire point, that is why it takes 16-24 people to start one. Try as he might, with that many people a Tank won't have all the aggro, and probably won't be the only tank.