Maelwys

[Update]

dmg/mez successfully traded for dmg/acc.
Cheers Fyre!

Still got that Lysosome (ToHit/DefDebuff/Acc) if anyone wants it. Figured out that I can actually use the dam/ranges in Impale now, so with the proposed range nerf for it I might hold onto them...

Not 100% sure, but I think there IS a "Mag" system in place for Knockback. I know that with my scrapper running Integration I still get inconvenienced by Ice patch (not Perma-Knockdowned, but fairly regularly).

And I can *eventually* Knockback/Knockdown a AV or EB if I keep attacking him with Soaring Dragon/Golden Dragonfly/Air Superiority/Energy Torrent.

Seem to recall Acrobatics being listed as having about 10 times the Knockback Protection "Mag" as most scrapper/tank mez protection toggles.

For all intents and purposes though, repel's knockback can be very easily countered in PVP. It's a case of the power "repel" not having the effect of "repel" (which only very few powers can resist) but rather the effect of "knockback" (which virtually all mez protection toggles and acrobatics resist).

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I don't think a scrapper should ever be able to grab aggro from tankers taunt powers, but this calls for little experimentation..

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not from the tanks secondary taunt but from the aura i think scrappers should with their taunt and as it is they can. A tanks secondary taunt would have to be well slotted against a scrappers. All my scrappers take the taunt as i find it very useful but id rather a scrapper with taunt that knows when and when not to use it than one that doesnt. In the wrong hands it could even cause a teamwipe.

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I've not taken taunt yet on any scrapper, I've pulled aggro from simply attacking constantly. Scrapper's attack "threat multiplier" is considerably high, almost as high as that of tankers. It's not unheard of to pull aggro from a poor-aggro-holding tank by doing consistently high damage on a scrapper or blaster.

That said, it'd be interesting to how a Spines/Dark running both damage auras and spamming AOEs and Scrapper Taunt would measure up.

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speed boost? how does that effect how he cant get them back? id get them back in no time my taunt would just spam away even quicker than it does.


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Oh, that's a reference to Hammer's post on the "Suggestion Forum" under "Speed boost and lack of control":

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My tank doesnt get much from speed boost as Im not there to kill enemies. instead the runspeed increase makes keeping enemies in taunt aura more difficult cause Im overshooting my targets.

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Oops, missed my ninja-edit of a 'Kin' in there, but the idea's the same...
Knockback them from his taunt aura and he can't get them back in with the Speed Boost on him.

Then Mael can pull aggro off him just by using Energy Torrent!

Sheer Genius!

(Actually... There's been a few PUGs lately on my own INV tanker where I strongly suspect that they were all ganging up on me and trying this very tactic.... I think they all love me really...)

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Heck, Mael's grabbed aggro from manys-a-PUG tank and he's a /regen.

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Grab aggro from me and then I believe you

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Last I looked, you're not a PUG tank...
...But if you insist....

** Goes off to find a kin to SB Hammer, a Kheldian in squid form and an AOE-knockback heavy blaster **

Heck, Mael's grabbed aggro from manys-a-PUG tank and he's a /regen.

Generally it's down to a Tank not having (+ using) taunt and at the same time not running an Autohit taunt aura. No, I don't care if you have it six-slotted for acc and taunt duration, Blazing Aura doesn't count...

Fire tanks that don't use AoEs are the easiest to pull aggro from, next easiest would be Granite Tankers that only rely on Mud Pots. INV tanks would come next, and lastly Ice tankers which I still find hard to pull aggro from even when playing my INV tank and spamming taunt.

My PB has pulled aggro from several INV tanks before, but generally only in dwarf form. Mael's pulled aggro from all kinds of tankers before (though only once or twice from an Ice tank). Ice tankers running Chilling Embrace are notoriously hard to pull aggro from, INV's Invincibility should be getting a nice boost with this patch though!!

PB is better for Dwarf in terms of Survivability and aggro-control tanking.
WS is better for Dwarf in terms of Damage Output.

As a bi-form Dwarf/Human PB I found staying in Dwarfie-only very boring, but it makes a great panic button and properly slotted PB's Dwarf is a passable PUG Tank.

I imagine you'll be fine as a Human/Dwarf WS if you only drop to Human to spawn your pets and pop Stygian Circle after battle (and maybe Mire). Don't expect to be quite as survivable as a PB dwarf though, you won't get essence boost or a fast recharging PBAoE Knockdown, and your self heal needs a ToHit roll.

Dwarf-Heavy you'll have major, major problems with Voids. I advise slotting up the Hold and/or disorients from Human form even if it's only used for Quantum/Voids.

My PB was built as a blapper with Dwarf form taken for a panic button. It worked quite well, even if I ended up tanking most of my preatorian AVs rather than blapping them.

It's been like this for as long as I can remember.

People are impatient and generally don't want to wait for a tank to "pull herd" on every mob. Generally if the tank has decent aggro control it's easy enough to cope with this mentality, mobs normally come "pre herded" to an extent anyway so you can jump into the middle of most mobs and start AOEing and taunt the few stragglers that are further away. My Peacebringer managed this fine with Antagonise and Dwarf Flare, and my Inv/SS tanker is currently adopting this approach with Footstomp, Invincibility and Taunt.

I still get annoyed with toons using Knockback Cones/AoEs on my mob, particularly if those attacks do negligable damage. I don't think PUGs will ever stop that though!

The only time I bother to "Pull Herd" now is if the team encounters an open area with 2-3 mobs that are too close and will link (and even then, usually only if the number of mobs present would put me past the aggro cap). The "room of death" in indoor lab maps for example, and most rooms with mobs on an overhanging bridge or walkway.

Unfortunately the number of tanks I see that try to tank a mob "as-is" without a well-slotted taunt or Taunt Aura is getting ridiculous...

There's a few tanks out there who still like to actively herd. On my defender the majority of them seemed to delight in herding too many enemies and going over the aggro cap, to the delight of all nearby squishies. There have been a few notable exceptions though who've tanked really well, and the herding method certainly works wonders with a fire/fire blaster on the team.

You still get idiots who don't follow the tank.
For these individuals it's generally best to let Darwinism run its course.

"rez plz!"

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I'll take your dmg/mez for a dmg/acc if you like?

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I'd like!

Give me a shout in-game, am @Maelwys or @Maelwysalts and usually on in the evenings after 6pmish.

Heh, might actually get my Spines/Dark's Damage Auras slotted yet!

I've built up a little collection of Hami-Os I don't really want...

1x Peroxisome (Dam/Mez)
1x Lysosome (ToHit/DefDebuff/Acc)
2x Centriole (Dam/Range)

If anyone wants any of the above, I can use:

Nucleolus (Dam/Acc)
Membrane (ToHit/DefBuff/Rchg)
Cytoskeleton (ToHit/DefBuff/EndRed)
Enzyme (ToHit/DefDebuff/EndRed)
Endoplasm (Acc/Mez)
Golgi (Heal/EndRed)
Ribosome (DamRes/EndRed)

That's pretty much ranked in order of preference.

Since the ones I don't want are probably more common than the ones I can use, I'm happy to trade more than one-for-one. Ideally I'd like a Membrane or a Nucleolus and would be happy to get rid of all 4 HOs for one...

Great job with Raid #1!

Picked up a Dam/Mez Hami O... Yuck!!!
Well I suppose it can go in Incandescent Strike...

But annoying the tank is what being a PB is all about!

Aye, fireball should still outdamage it in burst AoE damage. You do get a considerable -slow and -recharge out of it though, and damage per tick is quoted as being "0.77854 Lethal and 0.77854 Cold" on the US boards.

With 3 Damage SOs and Containment that rises to about 400% or 6.22832 damage per tick. Ticks are every 0.2 seconds so that would be 467.124 damage total over the 15 second duration, assuming that you could keep the mobs in place with a slow (snow storm?) or immob and could get the power up to reasonable accuracy.

Not brilliant, but better than it was. Makes the Ice epic a bit more attractive in comparison to the other epics now. Also Ice Storm is a "psuedo-pet", so does that mean Fulcrum Shift stacks with it....?

Yuppers, The_Laughing_Man on the US boards:

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I think "tweaked" rather than "fixed" is probably about right.

In the middle of a group, they now detonate reliably. Tried it on several groups of DE in FF and every seeker goes off immediately and at once without fail so far (tried it half a dozen times). However it must be a tightly packed group. Tried on a group of "wandering" DE and seekers 1 & 2 went off with 3 floating around for 5-10 seconds before finding a target.

Summoning them a short distance away from a group of mobs, then running in is not a good idea. They just float about a bit and come close, then eventually home in on a target as individual seekers, exploding and scattering the mobs. If seeker 1 goes off before the other two, then the others move ever so slowly in random directions until they get close to the knocked back survivors, then they go off. Often though, they time-out.

Personally, I can't see them as supplements to a Nova form for example. I tried several groups in FF and by the time I'd got into the group and laid waste to it in human/Nova forms, the seekers had just caught up.

Summoning them a long distance away, then flying around 'till you find a mob is an equal exercise in frustration. Their speed alternates between snail-like and super quick with no discernable reasoning behind it. When they do eventually make it to the mobs though, there is a definite improvement in that one seeker sometimes detonates (where before I never got one to)

I will still be using this as an alpha in a bosses face, and for that purpose, I have seen an improvement. Using them as pets though is still untenable to me. Whilst I could say that there has been an improvement, it is very much a small one.

Any definitive testing reports will require more time, as they take an age to recharge... Would be interested to hear others' views on this.

-H

(L39 PB tested in FF on grey minions and lt groups of DE & Council)


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Basically they're now detonating in the middle of a group reliably again.

w00t!!! Back to being a proper "Mini-Nuke"!

I'd hold up before you decide on a Build to see if the test changes go live. Looks like Taser has been changed to a ranged attack, so you could shortly be able to stack it with Beanbag for mezzing Bosses from range.

Time Bomb is pretty useless, yes. The rest I can't really comment on!

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• Assault Rifle Ignite: Increased Range to 40'
• Blaster Devices Taser: Increased Range to 20'
• Blaster Assault Rifle Flamethrower: Range increased slightly and recharge time changed so it now matches the range and recharge of the Corruptor version of this power.


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Looks like the Ice Epic is going to be one of the better ones if the US test server patch is anything to go by.

Containment damage is coming to Ice Storm, all the other damaging powers across all controller epics are getting nerfed to 'fit in line' with the damage numbers from controller primaries.

New patch on test!!

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• Tweaked all versions of Photon Seekers so they should be more responsive.


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Whooo!!! The devs still listen!

Proton Scatter's basically useless, very low damage and your chain should be fine without it. I'd probably drop it so I can use the slots elsewhere.

I'd change the 3 EndRdx in Reform Essence to recharges (I think that's what you meant for there anyway!) and change Solar Flare to 1acc/3dam/1endrdx/1rech so it's more damaging (it's high ratio Knockback and you'll not need two recharges especially with hasten running).

You'll want to stick at least another accuracy into Pulsar to get it to hit reliably (really needs 6-slotted 2acc/2mez/2rech if you want to perma-mez minions btw) and Photon Seekers could really do with another recharge, it's a long wait between Little Twits of Doom.

Light form can put you just under the 85% res cap by itself but it needs 3xResistance SOs. If you're running it combined with your other shields then with the above slotting you'll be at about 80% resistance all around.

You'll find surviving Holds and Knockback harder without acrobatics, but It's certainly a playable build. I didn't get the shields, 6-slotted Light form and picked up CJ/SJ/Acro. You could probably fit those in and keep shining shield if you were dropping proton scatter... CJ is a big help even by itself for a "blapper" build!

You can also slot swift for Flight Speed instead of Run Speed and drop one of the slots from Energy Flight (you'll still be at the flight speed cap).

+ If you're going for a ranged blaster then ice, fire or sonic primary is usually best.

+ If you're going for a "Stalker Hunter" then take /devices for the +perc (see above for primaries)

+ If you're going for a "Blapper" then /NRG or /Elec is the only real way to go.

+ If you're going for End drain it's gotta be elec/elec or elec/nrg.

+ If you want a "blastroller" then the ice primary and secondaries will do well.

Other toons will probably do fine, but those are the majority of the "cookie cutter" builds I've seen.

Actually, Ice Tanks just need Glacial Armor + Chilling Embrace to be able to see ANY stalker within melee range.

Chilling Embrace's debuff will disable all Stealth/Cloaking powers except for Hide within the area of effect (10 foot PBAoE), and Glacial Armor lets you see through Hide.

In that scenario, the perception cap doesn't matter since you've reduced the stalkers effective -perception to 500, regardless of what it was at previously. More stacked +perception is still good for seeing stalkers at longer distances providing that they're not already at the stealth cap.

A toon at the perception cap can only see a stalker at the stealth cap within a 10 foot range, so if you're not actively hunting stalkers and have fairly quick reflexes there's no real benefit to getting tactics.

The only toon that can see a stalker at the stealth cap at a distance of more than 10 foot is an Ice controller running Arctic Air. With just that power they can make any stalker visible within 25 feet... (NERF!! NERF!!)

Not surprised... as a "temp power attack" it would disregard the normal AT damage modifiers. Kheldians are normally Defender base damage so by comparison to their other attacks it'd seem a lot higher.

Temps don't affect containment, gauntlet or crits (though they'd get a cosmic balance/defiance boost).

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With hasten it overlaps (does it actually stack?)

[/ QUOTE ]If the icon stacks, it means the power stacks, usually. Also, NoFuture doesn't have it as [This effect does not stack from the same caster].

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Is there a +range cap then that we have to take into account?

[/ QUOTE ]I recall something about there being one, but don't have a source at hand.

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Apparently there isn't.

At least, not one to all powers at 300ft.
Which would make sense since you can slot recall friend for range.

Anyone up for testing for an attack range cap with Psionic lance 3-slotted for range increases?
[It should let you fire up to 175 * (1+(.2*6) = 385 feet!]

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pps. power boost is even further away from perma than build up..

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Aye, but it's a 15 second duration with a 60 second recharge, at least according to nofuture... which would fit with stalk_obot's numbers.

Cheers for the clarification on "Boost Range" Hammer!

Two good melee attacks that cycle with two decent blasts and an above-par footstomp into a constant smashing/energy damage chain work out pretty well though. A combination of melee attacks and blasts is pretty much a hybrid blaster/scrapper which is "a blapper" for all intents and purposes.

Even the Little Twits of Doom help by producing a very major spike in AoE damage every so often without totally draining your blue bar. Providing they impact, they're more powerful than the nuke (Dawn Strike).

PBs do get Build up... but Aim is sorely missed. That's the main reason Unit needs to suck all those yellows!

I'm not saying Unit could keep up with Skyfire if both were solo or both were at the +damage cap. Just that if both were on a large PvE team (and assuming there's no perma-fulcrum) then I'm pretty sure that their damage output would end up being very similar.

If they WERE both under the effects of a perma-fulcrum, then although higher blaster base damage would give ol' Cap the advantage, I don't think there'd be enough mobs left near either of them for a fair comparison...
...certainly no mobs still "resisting arrest"!

Although Unit's currently respecced out of the Footstomp (in favour of Seekers + Superspeed) I'd be up for trying this sometime as a little experiment, any Gooniemonkeyites that are nearing the 50 stretch?