Microcosm
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Tactics gives minor confuse protection as well as confuse and fear resistance. It can be quite helpful on baf or UG.Originally Posted by Justaris
None of the above, actually. The only one that would actually offer any protection would be Acrobatics (unless you count immob protection in CJ, but Shadow Cloak offers nearly as much). Dechs goes into a number of good tactics for dealing with mez in his guide and I heartily endorse it as it's not only sound advice but well-written as well. -
Quote:Yep. I do very little team supporting other than killing or drawing aggro. In fact, I kind of like it when a teammate kisses pavement, as that makes Vengeance more than just a set mule. Then again, the faster you kill, the less damage is being directed at your team
You're also selfish. 
I like to be a team player, and stunning entire groups at a time is a great way to help protect my team mates. Playing straight-up-damage-output is actually probably the least valuable approach to bring to most group content IMO- Not that damage output isn't necessary or awesome, I still build for it heavily- I just prefer to be less of a one trick pony (or alien) and bring more to the table.
My peacebringer makes good use of glowing touch, for what it's worth. -
I agree, the join date thing is silly and inherently a logical fallacy. Also, calling him TwoHeadedBaby is explicitly against the forum rules.
Other than that, I do have to say I prefer grabbing the human shields and skipping the mezzes on my human-centric build, because I am expressly concerned with survival in worst-case scenarios. In cases where those mezzes would help, I'm already defense soft-capped and resistance hard-capped. My nova-centric build keeps gravitic emanation as the human shields are rather worthless for a nova. -
Quote:Actually, you can no longer stomp your foot as a dwarf.Originally Posted by Quixotik
You mean other than Dwarf? Human Form is weak Blaster/Dead Scrapper. Squid is for dinner. At least you can stomp your foot as a dwarf.
Human form can easily reach higher survival than a dwarf now by just running some defense toggles. It already had the highest single target chain of the three forms. If you can deal with the kb, solar flare and detonation give human ample aoe damage as well. I have all the forms, personally, but the seafood is just for set bonuses.
If you don't have the recharge for perma-lightform or clarion or enough break free's, you might keep dwarf for the mez protection; if you don't want to deal with the kb of solar flare, you might keep nova for its aoe's. -
Quote:Again, there is a greater chance of it going off in general, but per target it is the exact same chance. So a damage proc adds the same average damage against a particular enemy in a single target attack as in an AoE. With a proc that affects you, the more enemies hit the better chance you have of getting your buff.Originally Posted by Bionut911
I assumed they have a greater chance of firing off, because they hit more targets. Like flipping a coin always has a 50/50 chance of landing heads, but you're more likely to get heads as a result if you flip the coin multiple times.
So it doesn't have a chance to fire off for every enemy it hits, or is it upon the first initial application then the proc spreads mob-wide? -
The answer is not a simple yes or no. You always have a greater chance of seeing the proc go off in an aoe than in a single target, no matter the proc, however the benefit is different depending on if the proc affects you or your enemy. Think of it this way: a proc that affects you (force feedback) has a higher chance of getting what you want if it hits multiple targets. A proc that affects your enemy (damage proc) has roughly the same results as adding a damage enhancement in that your overall damage will increase more in an aoe, but per target will be exactly the same as adding it to a single target attack. I would argue it might actually be worse because you will still spend the same number of attacks to take down the whole group, as I said above.
(I will edit this when I get to work to try to make it clearer). -
....so....beautiful
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Quote:It very much depends on the type of proc, or, rather, the effect of the proc.
The % chance of a proc going off in a power that affects multiple targets being higher (I'm sure a math whiz could explain it better) should definitely not be discounted.
Example 1: Damage proc, should be thought about per target
A) Facing 5 enemies with 15 hp each. Dark Microsplosion (much like Dark Detonation except it's autohit to simplify %'s) does 10 damage. AlienOne's Absolution, which you have slotted, has a 20% chance to do 5 damage. You launch your attack at the group, one goes down because the proc triggered, the other 4 are still up and need to be hit again, just like they would if there were no proc. The only way this helped you is that there is one less enemy's worth of damage incoming. You have spent the same endurance and the same activation time either way. The chance of all enemies being hit by the proc, thus saving you the extra endurance cost of using the power again, is 1 in 3125(!).
B) Facing 1 enemy with 15 hp. Microblast (again, autohit Shadowblast) does 10 damage, and TwoHeadedBoy's Torture has a 20% chance of 5 damage. In this case, the chance of saving yourself the extra endurance and activation time of activating the power twice is 1 in 5.
Example 2: Self-affecting proc, like Force Feedback +rech, should be thought about per activation
A) Facing 1 enemy, using Microblast, you have StoneDaemon's Speed slotted which has 20% chance of extra recharge. Chances of not getting the extra recharge is 0.8.
B) Facing 5 enemies, using Dark Microsplosion, still with StoneDaemon's Speed, the chances of not getting your extra recharge are much lower at ~0.33. -
I think comparing power to power is futile. They just don't match well enough in function outside of the forms. I have a different take on their overall comparison, too.
I think most know how much of a WS enthusiast I am. However, in the current state of things, I would take lightform over eclipse any day. The lack of psi resistance to me is not nearly as big of a deal as facing hard single targets, or somehow missing with eclipse, or not having any sort of mez protection outside of clarion. In fact, if pb's had the equivalent of warshade pets, I would like them both about the same.
As another point, stygian circle is awesome. However, there are times when I much prefer the two heals of a peacebringer and the end management of lightform/conserve power.
The main power gap that really remains in favor of WS's is from a) the pets, b) the Dwarves, and c) mezzing. For everything else the old argument of 'consistency vs higher-highs and lower-lows' is much more valid than it was before. -
Quote:Not a nerf, a relative nerf because it will no longer have the best single target damage of stalker primaries, which is fine.Originally Posted by BrandX
Why do you think ELM will recieve any kind of nerf?
As to the OP...
ELM and Spines of course just recieved a nice increase to ST to go along with their nice AOE.
StJ made out like a bandit with Assassin Strike giving 2 Combo Points even when used as a regular attack.
DB's combo's just became more effective, with being able to use AS in combo's, but it's best ST DPS isnt tied to a combo.
Kin Melee really made out if you factor IO sets into it.
I am referring to the free AS method that electric can currently use which pushes it over the top in st damage. (Lrod>waterspout/caltrops>BU>AS). I woiuld say brandx is right about the new chain.
Spines is still going to have lowish damage, but it will be better than now.
Db becomes able to use a version of the top chain. Having to use powerslice, nimble or vengeful before hurt its dps. -
Quote:NB with GD>GC>AS>GC will have better single target damage than the db. DB does have better AoE, though.Originally Posted by Ludicron
I was thinking of going NB over DB simply because I like the animations better, but I am having trouble seeing how the single target will be any different from DB, and DB has rather better AoE. An AS-SD-GD-GC would not need huge recharge true, but all the attacks have around same DPA as AB and SS from Dual Blades. Both chains would have great negRES proccing, which is their big advantage of course.
Still, I would love to make a NB/ELA for i22, but unfortunately I dislike ELA animations and they are not removable like Regen or others. -
Electricity currently has the strongest ST damage of stalker sets. It will receive a relative nerf to the other sets in strength when they all get buffed. I think that DB may get the most benefit from the change.
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AS's outside of hide will supposedly be standardized in the future, leading to, I believe, 1.188 arcanatime activations.
Getting Ablating to that recharge is impossible. However, even with a very minor pause the damage of that chain is better than your other options. In fact, a top build would likely be the second-best single target damage available to a stalker, only second to ninja blade. (Their positions are reversed on scrappers because of Blinding Feint, which stalkers lack). Combined with some good AoE options, db will be quite good post-i22. I plan on doing db/ice, myself. -
There is also waterspout. These are all on too long a recharge to use nothing else.
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Good thing about that chain is that BU>AS>AB gives you a little extra damage from pulling off the sweep combo.
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Quote:No, the avoid mechanic combined with slow definitely make them attack less often. They will run an extremely short distance, usually to the edge of the patch, and then run back and try to attack again, only to turn around again to avoid the patch. They also will switch back and forth between range mode and melee mode AI, which further slows attacks. Test it for yourself with to similar groups, one with trops and one without.Originally Posted by JayboH
Yeah I don't get the mitigation aspect either - it doesn't prevent enemies from attacking you at all, it doesn't make them do less damage or attack less often - you might get attacked less by melee and that's it. (true, melee typically hits harder I realize)
If you want to use another scenario, basically you are using a poor man's Scapper Burn. -
Quote:Combine them for what you want. You can use macros or binds to do it automatically for you.Originally Posted by Wing_Leader
I mean, I should probably use the accuracy and damage ones "like candy" since they aren't Oh-Crap-I'm-Gonna-Die type inspirations and since I can easily live without them I might as well just eat them and make room for more important ones. But I just never got into the habit, so I often have a few yellows and reds just sitting around collecting dust, taking up space that would be better served with purps, greens, or oranges (CoX is all about defense, after all).
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Quote:DA?Originally Posted by FourSpeed
I don't think they're the best power in /nin (it's tough to beat DA, for instance),
but I personally consider them a "must have" on my /nin toons - along with tp foe. -
Besides the mitigation aspect (which can be much greater than often realized), it's actually solid dpa against a high HP target if you can keep them on the patch.
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Quote:Whenever you insert a power in your chain try to do it in place of your weaker attacks. I don't have mids with me, but I think seekers activate longer than bolt alone. the important thing is to rstrike whenever possible.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
Microcosm, how do Photon Seekers fit in to the ST chain? I think that they could be cast whenever they're up in place of Bolt during the attack chain... I'm too lazy to math it all out right now but I'm wondering if you've considered it already.
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Longbow can have hefty -res, but it doesn't much affect warshades for two reasons: (1) if you eclipse in a crowd you likely have much more than the res cap (the -res goes off your total before the cap is applied); (2) resistance indeed resists -res, which makes the debuff less potent. You would need 100% resistance to not be affected, though.
As to building for defense, part of the draw is the fewer insps you have to use, the longer that tray will last. In a really tough fight, you wont see as many insp drops and might run into a problem if you use up your supply too soon.
For a challenging group, might I recommend Vanguard? -
Pb without lore pets? No. The highest dps build I've seen for a pb was about 220 dps, and while I don't remember how much is necessary, i can tell you that is not enough.
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If it makes you feel better, you probably will only be using Blinding Feint-Attack Vitals for single target and Blinding Feint-Sweep for AoE at higher levels.
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The current top scrapper time without lore pets is a db/elec.
Then there's a preponderance of dm/sd, with some stj/sd, etc.
Really, secondary seems to be quite important, the leading ones for damage being: shields because of AAo; electric for lightning reflexes and damage aura; sr for quickness; and fire for, well, everything. -
Chilling Embrace is awesome...however, if it is going to mess up your plans, Ice is still great without it.