Maelwys

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To be honest, I couldnt tell the difference if it was on or off. I was running it, enemies clearly debuffed, and yet they simply ignored me and turned to pound my scrapper partner.


[/ QUOTE ]You're both running a taunt aura, and the scrapper is going to deal more damage, so of course you're going to lose aggro.

Try playing with it in a team without other taunt auras.

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Never happened with my Ice tank, though.

Havent tested with the other taunt auras.

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Just posted something related to this in the Blaster forum.

I've been playing my Fire/Ice (ranged) Blaster a good bit lately, and I've had the fortune/misfortune to team with a number of WillPower Tankers since last issue.

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with RTTC. Willpower Tankers don't appear to be able to hold aggro off my Blaster to save themselves, whether it's a simple thing like laying down an Ice Patch (which technically shouldn't draw any aggro) or a more understandable thing like [Aim/BuildUp + FireBall + FireBreath], I'm pulling far, far more aggro than is reasonable to expect from a Tanker. And said Blaster has a Stealth IO in Sprint, which in theory should be reducing his threat level.

Now most of the WP tankers I've come across in PUGs have been /Energy without any noticable AoEs, so I'm fairly sure that it's Willpower's aura that's at fault. There is definately a slight taunt effect to it because enemies will initially turn and attack the tanker, but even when the tanker is well within the aggro cap, AoEing the enemies around him will instantly draw 30-50% of them onto me every single time. It seems as if either the duration of the taunt aura is too short, or the radius of the effect is too small. Either way, it's very frustrating not to be able to open up on a large mob when a tanker is in the middle of it, running their taunt aura and "gauntleting" away with ST attacks.

The way Willpower's aura appears to be currently performing reminds me of trying to tank for an 8-man PUG with a Peacebringer Dwarf. Essentially, very difficult. It's certainly not a patch on how solidly I can hold aggro with my INV/SS tanker, since even without Footstomp he can reliably hold aggro from multiple Fire Blasters. The Willpower Tanks I've been teaming with, on the other hand, appear to be no better at holding aggro than your average Spines/Regen Scrapper.

Now if only I could find me a PUG tank that's decent enough at aggro-grabbing to let my Fire/Ice really open up on a spawn without burning through an entire tray of wakies...

Anyone else noticed that Willpower's RTTC Taunt Aura is decidedly [censored]? My Peacebringer could hold aggro better... one Fireball, or even just laying an Ice Patch and it's open season on Fire Blasters...

I know there's been an issue with Scrapper Taunt Auras being too high a MaG, but I'm not aware of anything up with Tanker Taunt Auras. Still, my own INV/SS could hold aggro from multiple fire blasters very easily, but now that I'm playing the other side I seem to be stripping aggro from virtually every tanker I come across... whether I'm careful about "not pulling too much aggro before the taunt auras affect mobs" or not. Wierd.

I'm going to be heavily slotting "Rise of the Pheonix" for recharge, but it's a long way to level 47...

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The other thing is that the Cyst itself blows up when you kill it, with enough force (Fire + Smashing damage) to kill anything short of a Tank or a Dull Pained Scrapper.

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You don't need Dull Pain. My /dark scrapper can take the explosion from a Cyst. I generally use dark regen just before it goes to ensure I'm at full health, and I've seen other scrappers take the blast. Blasters and defenders nearby, on the other hand, fall like flies.

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Well Dark Scrappers have near 40% res to neg energy whilst dullpained regens might need 40% more health. All of this is saying stuff without much reference to level and luck. Has anyone truly worked out the damage of these things?

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They don't do Negative damage on a BOOM, it's Fire and Smashing damage. A Dark or INV Scrapper with a bit of +HP from Accolades/Set Bonuses should be OK, a Normal unbuffed Regen without Dull Pain up will faceplant.

The damage will scale by level. Haven't tested it in ages, but even on a +3 Cyst it could never get anywhere close to killing my PB in Dwarfie (59% Resists to Fire/Smashing, 1870 ish HP).

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Any theories why its so end heavy and what i can do to make it less end heavy?

Here is the build. I've only slotted Acc and Dam enchs so far.

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Need Endreds, or simply stop using your attacks so often.
Also before Stamina and SOs/25-30 Common IOs you're going to have endurance issues no matter what you do.

Acc/Dam/Dam/Dam/Endred <---- SO Attack Slotting, add another Acc or Rech as needed.

When you get high enough, you can start slotting more Endred via Set IOs without losing much Accuracy, Recharge or Damage slotting. Until then, slot Endreds, get Stamina, and reign-in your itchy trigger finger!

Makes a great opener, IF you're prepared to stand still for several seconds while it animates when you could be stringing a pack of normal ST attacks together for an even bigger bonus.

But to each their own...

Wouldn't bother with the snipe, but then I hate snipes.

Ice sword is fun, and it's the third most powerful attack you can get (after Inferno and Blaze). The snipe just eats into your DPS... you can spam 3-4 other high-damage attacks in the time it takes to animate. Chillblain, Fire Blast, Fireball, Ice sword are my first four powers on my Fire/Ice... I'd easily pick Ice Sword over Flares, it + Blaze work great against Bosses when you have them flipping on your Ice Patch...

I can see a Flying Blaster having trouble using melee attacks effectively though, so if you find you're not using Ice Sword then there's not much point in keeping it. With the Leaping pool, I'd certainly not drop it.

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*Gets out map. Looks closely. Gets out magnifying glass. Looks closer. Looks up with confused look on face.*

Ok, can anyone tell me there the rails of this thread are? I cant seem to find them.

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The Spanish Inquisition Part 1
The Spanish Inquisition Part 2

"I never wanted to be a Stalker....... I wanted to be.... A LUMBERJACK!!"

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Agree, but nevertheless it should be occassionaly, very occassionally. I.e. You shouldnt build or plan for it. And being "last man standing" is cold comfort to the rest of the team.

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Oh, does that mean I shouldn't plan for the Spanish Inquisition either? That's my build out the window!

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All that influence on Clarity set: Darwin's Theorem, and you still cant fight of the Inquisition!

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Nobody expects them, that's the whole point!

Their Chief weapon is Surprise.
And Fear.

OK, Their two weapons are Fear and Surprise.
And Ruthless Efficiency.

*Cough*
Their THREE weapons are Fear, Surprise, and Ruthless Efficiency.
And an almost Fanatacal Devotion to the Pope.

Their FOUR... no. Amongst their weapons. Amongst their weapons, are such elements... as... erm....

...erm, and nice red uniforms...

...never mind.

No Sonic +res this time though... and not one, but two debtmunchers. Three if you count the Squiddy.
Plus this time you have no Katana Scrappers in the main team, so you guys are DOOMed from the start.

Any MM combination can solo from 1 to 50.

/Traps and /FF will be a little easier than the rest due to mez protection, but /Dark is also very powerful.

Poison is generally best in one-on-one encounters, but your survivability will depend on the AV. Positron, for example, tends to laugh at Masterminds and grind them into soggy little lumps. Soloing Elite Bosses (AVs/Heroes on anything less than the highest difficulty setting) is doable for most if not all MM combinations.

For Primary, Thugs are probably the most damaging overall but sacrifice survivability. Bots are by far the most survivable and are great at AoE damage but not so good at Single Target damage. Ninjas are best at ST damage with a bit of control. Mercs are best at control. Necro is a ST Damage/Control/Survivability mix.

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Do the buffs show up as an icon under the health bar?

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They show up as a load of buffs. Each attack you do has it's own icon.

The buffs from one attack will "stack" with each other on the display, but the buffs from two different attacks just appear alongside each other. It's a bit awkward to tell just how much +damage you're actually getting.

Overall it is, however, a noticable difference for my Fire/Ice Blaster.
He can now kill an Even-level boss using 2-3 less attacks than before Issue 11.

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Hmm...Do Volt Sentinals blasts add buffs?

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Nope, just one buff for the initial summoning.

They only do that if you leave them on Goto (or Stay, which is the same thing - Goto their current location) and it's very easy to fix: just tap your follow/passive bind momentarily to clear their current orders, then put them back onto whatever mode you want to use.

You can even build a follow/passive bind into your TP-Self Macro, although I currently just 'port and tap "H" (H for "HEEL" - passive/follow) followed by B ("B" for "Bodyguard") whenever my Bots look like misbehaving.

Also, in the last few issues the "Goto" behaviour has been modified. If I put a Bot on Goto and move far away from that Goto location then usually that bot will now simply "follow" me after a respawn rather than attempt to run back to the out-of-range Goto location. I'm not sure whan this was changed exactly... it's been in effect ever since I started my Bot/Traps (last few issues) but wasn't when I was levelling my Bot/Dark (i7 ish).

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It doesnt realyl work that well. The bots still drop after the teleport and get separated from the main group. They also aggro NPCS when they scurry back to the MM. All in all movement in pvp zones with a MM is still extremely stupid. Im tilted toward group fly now, Im afraid. I thought Grp TP would cut it but it really doesnt.

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I'd not ever touch Group Fly due to all the -fly powers heroside pre-30, and Group TP's very endurance heavy... but I've found TP-Self to be quite workable as a MM. To avoid NPC aggro you just need to slot at least one range into your teleport (to ensure that the Bots respawn each time rather than try to run after you).

Putting all henchmen on Passive (or GOTO/Defensive) before you Teleport also helps if you get sidetracked.

There's really no easy way to deal with runners other than TP Foe or a Web Grenade though.
And getting TP-Foe'd or Confused is still a b**ch.

Confuse on a MM makes all your henchmen on Aggressive and all your Psuedopets such as Caltrops aggro you. My Bot/Traps and Bot/Dark both hate being confused more than they hate being TP-Foe'd.

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Can you stack the damage buffs if you manage to fire another power within the 7.5s limitation (getting the apropriate buff for that power as well)

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Yep. Double "Fire Blast" buff FTW!

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I'd really like to know if there's any secret to traveling with bots on PvP zones.

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Taking it slow in Bodyguard mode (the "turtle"), or using "Teleport". Teleport Self works almost as well as Team Teleport, since Bots respawn next to you when you "jump" far away.

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Also, you say TP Foe isn't needed... may I ask then how should I 'catch' enemies that are afar? My first guess is to use a hold and try to take them out then, but it's just a guess...

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As a Bot/Dark, you won't be able to catch anyone who runs away. At least not before level 41 (Patron Web Grenades from the "Mace Mastery" pool).

Using "Fearsome Stare" works temporarily against most solo heroes until they get hit or pop a breakfree, and the Sirens Call Temporary Power webgrenades can be used a few times (without much chance of actually hitting your target) before they wear out. Howling Twilight (Your AoE rez) can also be used as an autohit stun.

If you really want to catch people before level 41, you'll need to roll a Mercs/ or /Traps Mastermind for the Webgrenade/Caltrops/PoisonTrap methods. Ninja/ can work fairly well too against some opponents since they run very quickly and have Caltrops.

It's the First attack in your secondary and the First two attacks from the primary, so in theory I could use Flares, Fire Blast and Chillblain whilst mezzed.

Of course, in practice I skipped Flares... but Chillblain is proving to be a pretty useful tool to stop a mezzing LT from closing to melee range. The -recharge effect and piddly amounts of damage help too!

Having played through an arc or two with my Fire/Ice Blaster on live now, I'm loving the changes.

Noticably more damage over time, faster to drop bosses and LTs.

The Fire-when-mezzed thing doesn't graphically look too bad with Fire Blast and Chillblain, and I've survived more than one encounter with a nasty mezzing LT due to being able to spam those two attacks whilst slept/stunned/held.... Now if only I could drop an Ice Patch whilst slept/stunned/held...

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i actually think lui is a pretty cool guy

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Remind me again, are you the "Good" Xanthus twin or the "Evil" Xanthus twin?

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Ice melee is good at [censored] people off.

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Teleport at ice patch?

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Frozen Aura!!

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Re: Hammerfall is overpowered in pvp

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Q.F.T.

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3.) Fix your build

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Q.F.U.T.

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STALKERS ARE OPERPOWERED IN PVP!!!

Heres why IMO

they have defence on top of there hide
i was playing a blaster 2 days ago in sc i fired 7 shots at a stalker and not one hit i have 90% acc and damage.

this is not moan about the damage they do although id love to see how long they last if a blaster could kill in 2 shots

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Hi everyone that gave there opinion to this post.
Firstly id like to say after reading my post again and all the responces i see that i should have put a ? at the end of the post title this was supposed to be a post about one part of of the stalker ATs and i believe it was put in such a way as tp promote a discussion about this part of said ATs powers

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Re: Stalkers are overpowered in pvp?

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(i) Stalkers get huge defense from Hide whilst they are hidden.
(ii) Once OUT of hidden the Stealth suppresses from a whopping ~60% to a mild ~5% Defence to AoE.
(iii) The only Stalkers that get noticable Defence outside hidden are /SR and /Nin. They are defensive sets.
(iv) The OP's sig shows they have an Ice/EM and a NRG/Dev Blaster.
(v) If they wanted to annoy/kill a Stalker, their /Dev is perfect for it (Webnade/Mines/Stealth/Trops).
(vi) If a Blaster with "Aim + Build Up + PB" or "Aim + TD" can't hit a Stalker then that Blaster is Kak.

SR or NIN Stalker Defence in SC out of hide will be easily beaten by slotted Targetting Drone, never mind "Aim".

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Agree with Hammer.

There's a few exceptions (Spines/Weapon Mastery, or Snowstorm/Devices lockdowns) but it'll be pretty much a draw Blaster-to-Regen unless they get careless.

Fire/EM or Ice/EM Tankers though would seem to be more difficult to force a draw with. Loads of Resistance + Healing or Slow Protection + Hibern00b, and you'd be burning Breakfrees most of the match.

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dont turn this into a silly thread plz im making a lgitimate point here and i cant kill in 2 shots if i cant hit because of the defence , i fullly agree with them having hide and being able to pick there targets as well as having AS i just dont see why when they come out of hide they have defence aswell

[/ QUOTE ] But I thought it was silly? Surely...

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It is silly.

Honestly, when I saw the title the first thing I assumed was that some idiot had made another one of those insane "OMG CONTROLLERS ARE UNDERPOWERED IN THE PVP! OMGWTFBBQ!" or "NERF GLOBEY!" threads.

Anyway, before the OP accuses me of not contributing, it's a silly thread because:

(i) Stalkers get huge defense from Hide whilst they are hidden.
(ii) Once OUT of hidden the Stealth suppresses from a whopping ~60% to a mild ~5% Defence to AoE.
(iii) The only Stalkers that get noticable Defence outside hidden are /SR and /Nin. They are defensive sets.
(iv) The OP's sig shows they have an Ice/EM and a NRG/Dev Blaster.
(v) If they wanted to annoy/kill a Stalker, their /Dev is perfect for it (Webnade/Mines/Stealth/Trops).
(vi) If a Blaster with "Aim + Build Up + PB" or "Aim + TD" can't hit a Stalker then that Blaster is Kak.

SR or NIN Stalker Defence in SC out of hide will be easily beaten by slotted Targetting Drone, never mind "Aim".

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you need to represent it in such a way that it doesn't depend on enhancements.

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Yet you mention enhancements in basically every post you make on the subject

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Only to show that the numbers will change depending on your enhancement slotti...

Oh, I give up. Go play the dumb game already!

Had a GIF file up originally, but the quality was too bad to make out the text, so I saved it as a JPG instead!

The original was a bitmap that was far too large to upload...