Maelwys

I'd offer my Sonic... but even if I didn't already have my name down in the other STF thread, 6PM is a bit early for me to be able to commit to on a weekday.

Good luck with the run though Stevo! Make sure your tank's packing plenty of purples for Aeon this time...

Oh, and you did remember to bring someone with a ST immobilise for Ghost Widow, right?

Owing to the recent not-exactly-speedy delivery of a new motherboard, I'm now back online...

Give me a shout if you need another for the run. I'm not overly fussed on getting the MoSTF badge, but I can bring a Sonic Defender (who has the badge already) or an INV Tanker if the plan is to try for it.

If you're just planning on Blitzing through the TF normally, then I've got a few damage-dealers I can bring that'll probably be more useful (providing that dying repeatedly isn't an issue...)

Should be on this afternoon on @Maelwys/@MaelwysAlts

Before we get carried away by "Ghost Widow" concerns:

+ Yes, Soul Storm is a Mag 100 hold.
+ Castle wants it to be completely irresistable.
+ It looks as if all the ally mez protection powers are being made to not stack with themselves.


Now for the good news:

+ Ghost Widow has no large -defense debuffs or +tohit buffs. Soul Storm requires a tohit check.

+ Soul Storm's range is 80 Feet. Tanker Taunt's base range is 70 feet, and this is fully enhanceable.

+ "Unstoppable" and Sonic Buffs do not drop when you are held. Soul Storm is all Negative Energy damage.

+ Mez Protection is affected by Power Boost. With it, Defender CM/Clarity/Stimulant will be Mag 48.5. A Sonic and an Empath Defender, combined with Tanker toggles will be comfortably over Mag 100 Hold Protection.

By far the simplest way around this will be for tankers to slot, say, two level 50 Taunt/Rech/Range Set IOs into "taunt", get a Controller to keep Ghost Widow immobilised and then just taunt her from maximum range.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dumb as in lacking some usual property, characteristic, etc. Well sometimes the lacking of a usual property can be helpful to some people.

[/ QUOTE ]
Is this another one of your stupid "tactics" which you swear blind are brilliant but never tell anyone exactly what they are?

[/ QUOTE ]

As I mentioned above, personally I'm not going to take an AoE sleep... but I can see cases where it could be useful. Sonic's Siren's Song for example is seen as a great soloing tool because it negates a spawn while you pick them off one-by-one. I suppose /Ice could use it in cases where a mob type is resistant to Knockback, or versus Clockwork (WEAK to Knockback so they bounce off your Ice Patch)

The stacking thing? The only thing I can think of is to negate bosses, since that's the only cases where it'd be used. I imagine that rather than stacking it with ANOTHER power, Castle is talking about self-stacking. If Mid's is right, Blaster FA can be perma-double-stacked... but if it did damage, it couldn't be.

Blaster /Ice not doing enough damage is a valid point, but given past dev action I imagine that'd be looked at seperately. "Fix a bad power" and "Fix the overall damage output of a powerset" being seen as different issues.

A Regen can easily get Perma-Dull-Pain these days.
To do that, you need around 60% global +Rech plus Hasten.

That works out at:
+ 100% uptime for Dull Pain - 120 secs duration, <120 secs recharge.
+ >45% Uptime on Instant Healing - 90 secs duration, <200 secs recharge.
+ >27% Uptime on NEW MoG - 20 secs duration, <73.5 secs recharge.

So you could easily use MoG as a stop-gap measure whenever Instant Healing isn't up and you're midway through Dull Pain's cycle (since it grants you a large amount of +HP when it re-applies).

With a min-maxxed build you would have higher +recharge and a more regular buff cycle than that though. 200%+ recharge from Hasten + Set bonuses is attainable nowadays and that doesn't count outside buffs.

[ QUOTE ]
A lot of people hated its duration didn't they. Were you one of them?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. If MoG didn't get you killed instantly from falling damage, toxic damage or psionic damage, then you got to look forward to being 'tickled to death' over time.

Having said that, I hated the "25% HP and nullify all heals/regen" far more than I hated the duration.

The three minute long duration just meant that you were forceably subjected to the effects of a bad power for far too long. It was the -regen, -healing, -hp effects that made it a bad power in the first place.

[ QUOTE ]
Ooooh great. And then to think I've just rolled my fourth Regeneration toon *sighs*

[/ QUOTE ]

Realistically I don't think it'll be going live like this. It's far too powerful a buff to an already very powerful set. I suspect that the recharge time will be raised, or it'll be made unaffected-by-recharge-buffs.

As it stands, a IO'ed regen could be in full-godmode about a third of the time with no penalty, and still have Dull Pain, Reconstruction and Instant Healing to fall back on the other two-thirds of the time. And as much as I hate MoG and love /regen, that's far too much. It'd herald 'rebalancing' again in the rest of the set.

And that's just thinking about Scrappers. Imagine what EM/Regen STALKERS could do with Reconstruction + Dull Pain + Instant Healing and a +Defense/+Resistance Godmode with no health crash that's up virtually every time they want to rehide or Assassin-Strike something? It's like a spammable, short-duration "Elude + Unstoppable".

And again: Castle here -

[ QUOTE ]
It no longer has any form of Health manipulation, so no full heal when activated.
It still has the same Defense/Resistance values as before.
It still has the Endurance Recovery buff, but that duration is only 20 seconds as well.

EDIT: And to actually answer the question, no, NPCs still get whichever version of MOG they currently have. No changes are planned to that.

[/ QUOTE ]

No mention of the "Not affected by recharge" bit though, so looks like the Willpower tier 9 code doesn't apply. In other words, you get 20 seconds worth of Godmode to everything except Psionic once every four minutes base... so that's once every 2 minutes enhanced and once every 60-70 secs with set bonuses and Hasten.

*Jaw drops*

Also note that MoG as it stands grants considerable mez protection including protection against 'Repel'.
No mention of that mez protection getting stripped either, so it may act as a "super-breakfree" too.

*Jaw drops FURTHER*

Might finally be time to respec the ol' Kat/Regen...

Like "Poison Trap" and "Poison Trap"?

Or "Force of Nature" and "Force of Nature"?

Weakest? You mean in terms of damage output? I thought it was fairly tied with /Devices. It's certainly one of the best secondaries for control and damage mitigation. Ice Patch and Shiver combined are amazing.

I have an /Ice Blaster, and I picked the secondary for the extra control it offers. Unlike an /Ice tanker, my /Ice Blaster is in no way short on damage output because I get all the damage I need from his Fire/ Primary. Although Ice Sword is at least semi-decent, Ice seems to lend itself more to ranged combat.

I've no plans to take any sleep powers at all, since personally I'm far too fond of spamming AoEs... but at the risk of repeating myself: It makes sense for Blasters to keep all their mitigation options open, since as an AT Blasters will generally need extra mitigation more than extra damage.

On the other hand, for Tankers it is just the opposite. Tankers have so much mitigation that it's oozing out of their ears, but /Ice Tankers will have very little in the way of damage output.

Finally, /Ice on a Blaster is called "Ice Manipulation". /Ice on a Tanker is called "Ice Melee". Thematically, at least, you could argue that manipulation deals more with control and melee deals more with attacks.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The Munitions Mastery "sleep grenade" can be stacked with FA to snoozle bosses.

[/ QUOTE ]So can earth mastery Salt Crystals on tanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

The difference being, of course, that Tankers don't care nearly as much as a Blaster when an unslept boss decides to smack them in the face...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also, a typical Blaster isn't exactly lacking in damage output (but could use more mitigation), but /Ice tanks could use some more.

[/ QUOTE ]But they gave sleep stacking as a reason rather than damage output

[/ QUOTE ]

In fairness, you could come at that from either POV. Blasters that take FA already will use it for the sleep. /Ice Blasters haven't been complaining about having no damage output (they still have a primary, and /Ice tends to be chosen for the "control") but they are likely to complain if you nerf any of their mitigation.

On the other hand, /Ice on a Tanker is going to provide pretty much the only damage that Tank gets. /Ice Tanks have been complaining for ages (loudly, at least on the US boards) that they need more damage. So, Castle adds damage to Tanker FA, but doesn't touch the Blaster version because if he took away any Blaster mitigation in return for damage it would be seen more as a nerf than a buff.

I imagine it's something along the lines of what they did for Willpower's tier 9.

Regen is full of "-downtime" powers, but is lacking when it comes to big spike damage (AVs). Hopefully it'll be a +def/+resist clicky on a long, unenhanceable timer and they'll get rid of the -hp/-healing bit.

When he was looking at giving Willpowers's tier 9 the unenhanceable recharge attribute, Castle mentioned that if he got it working then that code could be applied to certain other powers. Time will tell...

The Munitions Mastery "sleep grenade" can be stacked with FA to snoozle bosses. Also, a typical Blaster isn't exactly lacking in damage output (but could use more mitigation), but /Ice tanks could use some more.

From here

[ QUOTE ]
Adding damage to Frozen Aura is easy (look at the Training Room in the near future, in fact...) but addressing the rest of the powers is NOT as easy as you'd think. Front loading one or two powers so they perform better than they "should" is an option, but I'm hesitant to do so.

Anyway, just wanted to poke my head in and give a brief glimpse into the thought process, and to give a bit of advance warning on the FA thing.


[/ QUOTE ][ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Congrats to Tundara and the others Now pray Castle isn't pulling your leg and simply adding a .3 DS damage portion

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd have a herd of rabid otters tossed at me if I did that. I ain't that stupid!

[/ QUOTE ][ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Will this affect the blaster version of FA?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, as that would eliminate it's ability to stack.

[/ QUOTE ]

- Castle

From here

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.


[/ QUOTE ]You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.

[/ QUOTE ]

- Castle



...

...

Fire/EM is probably the best scranker or "scrapping tanker" set for a few reasons.

The first is that /EM's damage is extremely high, and concentrated on single target 'spike damage' attacks. This lends itself to taking on small numbers of tougher opponents rather than larger groups of weaker opponents. Fire/ also has Firey Embrace, a "second Build Up" which further increases this damage output. EM's most powerful attack damages you each time you use it... which is no problem with Healing Flames.

The second is that Fire/ possesses a good range of mitigation, but nothing that increases with the number of enemies around you (Ice, INV and Willpower all do). You have good resistances, an endurance drain, and finally Healing flames. Healing Flames gives you considerable survivability and drastically lowers downtime... but it doesn't raise your HP like DullPain/Hoarfrost/etc. so you are vunerable to heavy "Alpha Strikes".

Finally, Fire/ has no autohit taunt aura. This makes it fairly poor at holding aggro against very high level enemies. It also has a few mez holes, Immobilisation and Knockback protection being amongst them.

So Fire/ can easily face a wide range of damage types but is generally better versus fewer foes than versus many foes. And /EM is best at fighting fewer opponents, and has VERY powerful spike damage that can be boosted further with Firey Embrace. Combined, they produce a character that will survive best against small groups of opponents and can output a large amount of single target damage in a short amount of time.

The same reasons also make it a good choice for PvP combat, since /EM damage is rarely resisted and Fire's Heal and high resistances work in its favour against most other players. Also, the traditional power pool choices for a Fire/ (Fitness obviously, Leaping to cover the mez holes, Speed to decrease the recharge on Healing Flames) are also typical choices for PvP melee toons (SJ/SS + Hasten + Fitness) so you will find a lot of Fire/EMs being rolled for PvP combat, where they will be mainly Damage dealers rather than Meatshields.

Well in INV's case you don't need Medicine, and you definately don't need LBE/Conserve power. In fact, I respecced out Conserve Power not so long ago to stick Resist Energies back in on my INV/SS.

I'd be hesitant to drop Tough/Weave or Hasten, as they add so much to the sets... but Medicine is strictly optional, especially with a +Defense build with capped S/L resists and a Perma Dull Pain setup.

INV is really just down to Dull Pain + Invincibility + Tough Hide, plus UY/TI/RPD and Unstoppable. Factor in an AoE and Taunt and you're good to go. Then with SS/ all you need to be a "Hybrid" is Rage and KO Blow!

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data chunk into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MHDz;4500;1237;1652;|
&gt;-KE5TUOXS80O0?(?]"MAT4:\4.4A)Z2&gt;+=)NRZ"..V&gt;%9FVA5A2(%%N`Q #Z[3ND15))*-LY%P[LR?#
-D!S.&amp;PYO&gt;5//,I']PYNVJ*O?T*_T_.Q'73YMN9QW(A.@E(]9]&lt;R;\[.[:M=M*]YD3\6V$*]RT;WP)E
B(AE=KL9%WU8:#*.2W0E2\;&gt;%WO1%%M9;?&gt;?:B?A&lt; OG"_E5W"Q?@WF62MX\WI^AF2H/T@2&gt;5&gt;"RUW1E
&lt;%54]9-_\#;659&gt;?JV6#\O_&gt;MKC%,-WV),4#`Z"+Q_RS5I;1,8"RP'2@Q.JM51I'PN15&lt;K-39VI]?H=
D1`9DP0FOW#+5M_]59Z#6\P,)MQCT(#`,I*S.A=UPY?!C[JKEFU_R[.MVQHAUC_Z`'VW%**B0#0T]+N
U2'(,^=XUM0;8:Z!!T0&amp;0]&lt;0,B,8N8`1VIX)QTW3M!H(=P"EFN5#QNYR5RC"U,20?4(`P *TT3`Z-3SB
PT/0ZUYX#"T*"9=_ZW`4,N+9B&lt;9\_U+VUP70BN';^'[E.1)A(QEQZ1C@F2_1]=^2T\X?&gt;724.DL55
@H?/Q%T\C.3_/&amp;GZ9(`78JG&amp;HZ06=(A*J_XNFC[^[:X7$!]Z%I-C7V`"56`A&gt;#9&lt;@7L#NZ;6O!&lt;U1`S
V8ROOJA9XKT!(E(S&gt;&lt;@-=3Y&gt;,J4C,B$(BRH5?Q9MR47_6-\60ON,B(;C5&amp;%ZF.FZ6ZW`#0E-'A(BOW?
Y&lt;U"O`K'AP&gt;^9JG.-@NHU#=,12;$7IT*T7WULMDLCMWK83`2I'7H.#8;&lt;!M1Y*P; \U95%E4&amp;ZW-35+M
OR-N=5SBW'J"L'![&amp;.N3;+(;LF#![XFE=@L6M&gt;O^A)L.4?.BR?*M6P%.S;$39@&gt;=+0G-,$1!.X:K0
10['CP6;=L-DVDH2LS1F(#I2*C\95(9+X-O=2.ZBMO#&lt;+&amp;+WXR[JR!V`4K&gt;NQC=&amp;(P=@)FL9[&amp;-`YOP
Y;#I"'MJGNCZ:_:M*IO*@7O&gt;K.JFS.!D@L6F6,%]J/8WKY=@QR);X,!@&amp;FK6Q2*[+@PY./B!],&lt;CM4U
6K)82G5B'`7Q2(&lt;;X]$I\`.LKQ9A^KA8#_N1B3,@H+D07%R3G=?ZL)KM62&lt;U+Z&am p;OZQZRKA+:_?*ATR)
';.CELH=$NR48LP!%4/?RYW@=L/MW\,'_WPXZT/]I+8BOHJ*W!,?PPU57-&gt;?G4`&amp;#(V`ND![WJ9$J-K
-M4WVPGEV#`'ROJ9NG^2V'$"J)^("$F8V+CZFH`\L:5Z&amp;8S WZ@(@IX&lt;T)-!;P,+FV*Z2_)[H!/Z:%+O
]J&gt;.+`'6+_*BJ?-&lt;\6.FTJC=H8;F#+(["8P+YE*G8720(OAZTHU,.@&gt;.8&gt;+&amp36`^E1Z1)Y, V69SO
-L6W][ZA4H=`2$5+]+6I4?1`*1S`;;ZJZ*'+L'@+4L7N(HI/N(0_LXSTTZ&lt;MS#WVB7QFE&amp;27[BN?-7Q
CTJNF4VKEENJ?]X';_$F!^=3RE=FX3&amp;&gt;])&lt;?,J5%,:[;D#PS#D4:9^Y&lt;"%_9L,'7BY&amp;8R*V-_5DWK;P
'FHIVR_$%NQ`7B$(H\1TM4\]+,1O74&gt;[_\9-!&gt;CO_^;4D4#2'FQK\"(1'#:"=9M-1N)S(G(BE'BM*'3
IDZ+G6BP9E(ZK`,&gt;#8C$:BJB@7'BQ-2*2&gt;A$Y$3L1.)$YRR)G.C\)LR)=!#/SWX"&lt;+H($```
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
</pre><hr />

So the argument becomes "If I don't beat this fool with a big stick NOW then someone else will do it eventually... so I might as well beat them now, scare them away and save that other person the trouble"?

I can see how this could improve the population of PvP zones...

There's only really a few instances where I'd be able to justify a "Scranker" build. And the main one is someone who wants to have a melee damage-dealer character but doesn't want to do smashing/lethal damage.

So, likely a Fire/EM tanker or Fire/Fire Tanker. Such toons are often just as damaging as Scrappers, so as long as any teams they join know that the toon is NOT primarily an aggro magnet, I don't see any issue with it.

On "Hybrids", frankly I don't see how "dedicated" or "pure" tankers would ever be more useful to team situations than a well-played and well-built hybrid. Other than a few very specialised instances such as Hamidon raids or "tanking LR without support". Example: a /SS with the option to switch between perma-rage and full-defensive modes depending on team setup is simply more useful than one that can only do one or the other.

Level 37 Common IOs?
IIRC they just come in multiples of 5...


There's two problems with using IOs as a "baseline":

The first is that is that if you stick to Common IOs, quite often the extra % numbers will be wasted. Say you want 95-100% damage in a power (not unreasonable)... you could slot three Damage SOs, or any three Damage Common IOs above level 25. Level 50 common IOs would give more "oomph" compared to level 30 ones, but the extra power would get trimmed by ED.

The second is that there are so many possible combinations of set ios that it becomes a nightmare to try to give the "best" slotting at intermediate levels. At level 50 using the most powerful IOs and when you're unlikely to ever need to change the slotting, it can be easier to reach a consensus. At level, 37, say? You can't slot the level 50 Acc/Dam/Rech/End IO yet, so you're "losing out" to the people who can when you compare builds.

The final point is that there are still a lot of people- myself included- who level a character using "SO level enhancements" in the powers because that's what they're used to building a character around and PvE levelling play really doesn't require any more ommph that SOs have traditionally provided. In those cases, Common IOs simply become a cheaper alternative to buying new SOs every five levels.

Ultimately I'll decide to go for all-out performance on a character, but IMO outfitting a character with new sets of IOs at multiple points in its life is a waste of time, money and effort... so unless it's an IO that I know I'll always keep slotted on that character (such as a +Recovery unique) I'll always plump for the Common IO option when I'm levelling and completely refit the toon with set IOs when it hits 50.

Case in point, my level 35 Fire/Ice Blaster has four set IOs slotted: a Miracle +recovery Unique in Health, a Knockback protection IO in Hover, a Kismet +Tohit IO in Combat Jumping and a +Stealth IO in Sprint. The rest of his powers are slotted in traditional "SO" style, albeit with level 25+ Common IOs. I don't discriminate between level 25 and level 35 Common IOs when I'm buying them for him, I just take whatever's cheapest!

I think Scy's arguing that "even-level SOs at level 25" are identical to "even-level SOs at level 50".
Whereas "even-level Common IOs" at level 25 are noticeably weaker than their level 50 counterparts.

Personally I tend to slot powers with roughly "SO-strength" IOs when I'm levelling, to save money and effort whilst still being just as effective as if I'd used SOs. So I would suggest that using level 25 or 30ish Common IOs, or even-level SOs, or "in the region of 33% enhancement each" as a baseline is a fairly good indicator.

By comparison, high-level Set IOs blow everything except certain HO combinations out of the water... and is generally the slotting that you'll "ultimately want" in any given power...

A bunch of Trainspotters would "pwn" a Cyst crystal?
Sounds like a new supergroup in the making...

If that MM sucks, or your AoE attacks have a VERY wide radius (60 feet).

Ice Patch only lasts for 30 seconds, and laying one certainly doesn't mean you can turn off your mez protection.

Also, there's normally about 20 seconds between Ice Patches on that build, you're looking at it with Hasten up. 10 End isn't much, even if you want a "Perma" patch (every 30 secs or "every new mob"). Look at "Energy Absorption", 13 end and you'll use it every chance you get! But you'll never turn off your mez protection.

There's a "Ghost" train one too, and the "Shadows" one with Preatorian enemies.
But they're considerably more annoying and less efficient than the Behemoth or Carnie maps...

Only run around a blind corner if you're confident you can beat whatever could concievably be lurking on the other side of that corner without backup. Likewise, only chase after a runner if you're confident that you can not only beat the runner, but also anything he might be running to for help. Up to and including his "Mommy".

If you do this then any "support" toon that follows you, pulls aggro and subsequently faceplants can be made fun of... since you are safe in the knowledge that you didn't, in fact, need their help in the first place.

After all, just because your health bar was less than 5% full doesn't mean that you were in trouble, right?

Sure it doesn't. You were just about to hit 'Dark Regeneration', or you were "leveraging Defiance", or your new self-rez power was going to waste, or you just felt like going AFK to order a pizza. Silly Defenders...

^^--- Scrapper/Blaster rationale.