Miladys_Knight

+1 rep..... oh wait

I frequently frankenslot as early as level 12 (instead of switching over to DOs). Even low level dual/tri aspect IOs are worthwhile at this point as most powers are at best 3 slotted. With a level 15 rech IO in rest I can usually make a single bar of end last until rest is up again.

It makes the low level game much more enjoyable for me. I will then again frankenslot new set IOs at level 25. These will last me until I have enough slots (around level 35) to consider starting to slot sets. I can also usually tell by level 35 if I'm going to take a toon all the way to 50 or if it will just gather E-dust. If it's headed for the E-dust bin I just leave it frankenslotted.

A frankenslotted build is still miles ahead of SOs only and I played the game with just SOs for a long time.....

Yep, you got it in one. This is one of the reasons that many people don't like KB, because they don't "really" know how it works in game.

Many people see a Trip Mine go off, a Time Bomb go off, a surrounded energy blaster cast Explosive (which is actually an excellent idea in that case), or an Energy Blaster in the middle of a spawn nuking, see radial KB and assume that all KB is radial.

It isn't though. All KB moves away from the caster at the moment the KB effect is applied. In the case of a stationary psuedo pet like Trip Mine or Time Bomb it is radial because the source can't move and it happens when the mob/timer triggers it.

In the case of a player it is an entirely different story since the player can (and does) move, the AoE attack that has KB as a secondary effect has range greater than "0", and Swift, Hurdle, and Combat Jumping can be well slotted for unsuppressed movement.

If you want to prove it to yourself, copy a high level blaster over to test, respec in to Munitions, choose LRM (it is the largest radius, direct fire, KB attack and it has snipe range so seeing the effects is easy) Slot it with 2 acc, and 3 KB SOs, find a spawn. Target the farthest mob and fire. 50% of the spawn will move away from you (because it has a 50% chance to KB) and all of them will have been in front of the one you aimed at.

This is 100% incorrect and has been proven multiple times. AoE KB ALWAYS moves away from the caster at the moment the KB effect is applied. It has absolutely nothing to do with the target(s) unless the targets are spread out far enough that they are out of the radius of effect.

This can lead to some very interesting effects if you kite foes with AoE KB.

My Energy/Energy/Force Blapper uses KB for mitigation and only runs about 7% defense to all positions. I have done all of the following:

Jumped toward a spawn and launched Explosive/Torrent at the front mob, landed at the back of the spawn and had the entire spawn, get KB'd to the spot I had originally been standing.

Leaped out of the center of a spawn just as I triggered nova. All of the mobs were KB'd in a cone away from the position I landed in when Nova went off.

Actually, that's exactly the way that MoG works.

Think what you want. Unless your AoE attack chain is totally seamless, you are always perfectly positioned and have all your attacks recharged in every situation, and have no down time between spawns, then you are right and it would always be better to have it in Targeting Drone.

Since the above has never been true in my experience, nor even close to true often enough to make a difference I'll leave mine where it is thankyouverymuch.

There is a very good reason I don't have targeting drone on my Arch/Dev all of which I've said above. I did play around on test with targeting drone and it was actually much more likely to proc when I was setting up a trip mine, setting up Time Bomb, moving to the next spawn, etc than it was to proc right before I unloaded my AoE chain.

Since we are talking about an Arch/Dev here, on the times it procs in Aim my attack chain functions just like my Arch/Energy and RoA > Fistfull > Explosive is a spawn wiper. Any other time my AoE chain isn't a spawn wiper (except when I time it with Time Bomb which is every third spawn) and I have to repeat Fistfull and Explosive to wipe out the spawn then follow up on bosses with single target attacks or just wait and let him drive over the trip mine I set up.

95% of the time when I had it in TD on Test the result was the same as if I had not had it at all. It still took RoA > Fistfull > Explosive > Fistfull > Explosive. To finish a spawn. Sure on occasion I saved an AoE attack when it procced on one of the AoEs post RoA, but it was more likely to proc while I was single targeting the boss in the spawn than on my opening AoE.

By the by, since I don't have TD on my Arch/Dev because I can simulate all of the useful PVE features of it with set bonuses and inspirations, without spending a single endurance, while I'm mezzed, the only option for the proc is in Aim, which is where it will sit and where it will stay until such time as /Dev is brought up to this era of the game by the devs.

There's a difference between burst damage and sustained damage. For sustained damage having the proc in the toggle is fine. I prefer to have the chance to proc affect all 3 of my AoE attacks at a time of my choosing rather than randomly at some much more er, random time. The chances of it proccing right before unloading the AoEs are MUCH higher if it is in Aim even if the toggle allows it to proc 3 times more often.

That's not always the case as Seeds of Confusion does cause aggro. If you are too close to them when you cast it you'll still eat the alpha.

From my personal testing the answer is yes, even if it's not a damage proc.

I slotted Flash Arrow with Dark Watcher's chance for -rech. The entire spawn aggro'd each and every time even if the proc didn't fire on any of them.

I'd agree that MA/Dark/Body scrapper is the way to go. You can get away with leaving Cloak of Darkness out of the build for concept with out gimping yourself and color tinting the rest of the powers to give the look you want. The 2 power sets play really well together in regards to stacking stuns especially now that Martial arts has gotten a bit of a make over.

You can split your animation choices between punches and kicks to give the feel that you want.

One caveat. MA/Dark is an end hog (both the primary and the secondary are end heavy) even with high end red slotting. You'll want 3-4 slotted Stamina with a performance shifter proc, Health 5 slotted with Miracle +, Miracle Heal, Numina +/+, Numina Heal, and Regen Tissue proc. Dark Regen slotted with a Theft of Essence proc, and Physical Perfection 3 slotted, 2 end mod and a performance shifter proc.

As far as starting as a hero is concerned, you were always a bad boy through out high school and college, hero classes were all that were available to you, but you lied on your entrance exam and again when you took your hero oath.

It does indeed. The actual loss is pretty minimal and as long as you do any amount of damage at all you get a chance for a drop. I soloed mine to 50. It went very fast. I'll run a couple missions tomorrow and post some screen shots for you.

I neglected to mention that he was a perma-Hasten. RoA was up every spawn. I have no doubt that he had some 20-30 insps active and providing buffs at any one time. He had it timed so that he could just go from spawn to spawn on the wall in Cim (top then bottom) and the mobs would respawn a few seconds before he was ready.

One of the fastest blaster farmers I've ever seen was an Arch/Ment. He would stealth into a spawn, buff up, RoA > Drain Psyche > Psi Shockwave and move on to the next spawn.

"Most" (in quotes to be sure that everyone understands that I know that each set has it's outliers) of the powers and animations as designed try to at least come close to the real world physics required to pull them off (barring programming limitations). Close enough that I'm comfortable using them, and accepting them without giving it too much thought beyond that. Most of the DP animations from the tier 3 on up (barring Executioner's Shot) do not fit that mold and are so far the opposite that I find my self being disturbed by them to the point of distraction. This defeats my purpose in playing the set and the game.

Bias is a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question. ie: prejudice. Prejudice means to prejudge, or to have a preconceived opinion without knowledge, thought or reason. I can assure you that this is not the case. I've tried the set, tried pairing it with a couple of different secondaries and played one to level 50 (and a couple of others to 38). I'm not prejudging the set at all I am post judging the set. My comments on the set are all based entirely on my play experience with the set as a blaster especially in comparison to other blaster sets and by comparing numerical data on performance with other blaster primaries.

Which to sum up is "jack of all trades, master of none." There is nothing that it truly excels at except the number of procs that can be packed into it and it has several deficiencies. In most power sets deficiencies are preselected by the devs creating the set as a "Kryptonite" to balance the strengths. (The sleep hole in dispersion bubble is a classic example). There are no strengths that the deficiencies are balancing. If the sets deficiencies were removed or strengths added I would have no issues with it.

Actually it is more that the set is not good enough as a blaster primary, (it is adequate for corruptors or defenders as a primary/secondary) to actively encourage people toward it. It is the new "old" archery or the new "old" assault rifle.

This may be true but I'm more of the opinion that it is like minded individuals reaching similar conclusions with similar experiences. I'm certainly not opposed to playing what are traditionally considered as weak or slow sets or taking a set and concentrating on it's secondary effects rather than it's primary purpose. If that turns out to be some thing that works and is unique it can become a favorite of mine (Blappers, my hurricaneless fire/storm, or my Plant/TA that skipped all the slows and acc debuffs as examples).

For me, the unique things in DP detract from the overall playability of the set rather than enhancing it. My personal experiences with the set place it above Psi but still below my enjoyable threshold. All other primaries are in my enjoyable category. (Elec is the one directly above DP)

Yes the tier 1 and 2 are standardized. I have no doubt that had they not been required to be standardized by defiance we would have gotten over long animations for them as well. I remember well how long the animations for Archery and AR were. The Archer toon and Soldier toon that I played prior to their upgrades didn't need stamina for any reason. The animations were so long that as long as you slotted an end red in each power you recovered end almost as fast as you spent it due mainly to the length of animation times. With Hasten running my attack chain was Blazing, Fistfull, Explosive, Aimed. I didn't need other powers (Except RoA as an opener) because one of the above 4 was always recharged. The main point that I am making here is that the devs have NOT learned (or have forgotten) the lesson taught by Archery and AR where Blasters and animation times are concerned.

My experience differs from yours in that most of the veteran players on the server that I play on do not like the set and are vocal about it. The one thing I will offer here is that a trend that I see is that younger players (as concerns chronological age) seem to the love the animations where older players do not. (I am an older player). I play this game to have fun. Part of the fun is the suspension of belief that "most" of the power sets in the game could actually be done in the real world given the right circumstances. All powers beyond the tier 2 power in DP are outside the realm of that. I find that immersion breaking in a game I play at least partly for the immersion.

Ah, but it isn't bias. My comments are entirely made through my experiences playing the set. Indeed I do tell people not to play the set but usually as a response to the OP. If they want to know if the slow effects are good the answer is no. Try Ice instead. How is the damage? Low outside of incendiary rounds, try fire instead. How is the KD mitigation from standard rounds? Low try Energy instead.

When people ask a question I try to be as honest as possible. There is nothing that the set truly excels at except for the sheer number of procs that can be packed into it (which I have mentioned frequently). There is nothing in the power set that one of the other power sets does not do better.

I'm sorry I can't take a more balanced approach to my description of the set, as it stands now, as doing so would not be honest. There are deficiencies in the set and there is no corresponding strength to mitigate those deficiencies.

(This is the same reason that I will not play, nor recommend, Psi/)