MisterD

I am still just not sure what you expected. I get that it is really bad, but still..its a tank set, that is all smashing damage, without build up. Its no ss, its no TW..

Still, it must be very bad to get that reaction from you. Any other staff takes got an opinion?

Need to be able to keep slinging pain all the time? Wait, you mean like..attack when under mez? So..like they ALREADY can do? Not this stupid argument again. If you cant play a blaster, go roll something else.

I am going to try not to be sarcastic here. Wait, no I'm not. Staff has been out less than a week..and you have TWO 50s with it. I am going to assume you were not one of those people who played it on Test (because if you did, you might have already been aware it sucks on tanks) so I guess quite a bit of AE was involved?

This is what happens..pl a shiny new set, find out it is not as perfect and shiny as it seemed when you made the toon and went to the AE building.

Also..you made a tank, wanting damage? Surely it is just ss/fire/em, maybe TW for tanker damage?

If you did not pl your toons, I totally retract my comments. Except for the one about tanker damage.

A buff that works on each ally 'hit' by the team powers..yeah, I can see teh idea behind it. But the numbers would need to be tiny, or it could become OP, especially on a Crab with perma Serum. Also, it does nothing at all to the solo Soldier.

Trying to think of other things...pretty much all I want with SoAs, is to fix that damn backpack on banes..cause not everyone checks the forums before making an alt build.

Also, give us the option for a Spiderling aura, like the one regent korol has.

Totally..its an awful pose. Considering how good the TW, and especially staff, animations ARE...the hover pose is just so dumb and lazy looking. Is not how I imagine a guy holding a long weapon, and hovering, would move. Then there are the times when your toon sort of leaaans forward, and looks about to tip over, in mid air? Yeah..not a fan at all. I was tempted to actually make a hover scrapper..the animation for confront and serpents reach look awesome in the air..but that hover pose..

I am with Blue on this. I am seriously considering having a hover scrapper..and I HATE flying melees with a passion.

Although I do 'like' the animation..if you have seen the Star Wars Kid (it might still be on youtube) it is impossible to use this power without thinking of that guy. When hovering, there is a neat lil spin at teh end that looks really pretty.

Changed my mind..did an alt build with hover..the pose for hovering forward, with teh staff out, looks totally dumb. Is there anyway I can change that?

Trying it now on a scrapper. The forms seem fun..but it REALLY sucks you have to take a power pick to actually get them. Sets like db, stj, tw..you dont have to take anything extra to get the combos and bonus goodness. especially in the era of IOs..a power you have to take and CANT slot a set in? That isnt a good thing.

As much as I love the animations, Eye of the Storm always makes me think of the Star Wars Kid..which is NOT a good thing. lol.

Also, Precise strike is moderate damage..serpents reach is high. Any guesses at the actual difference in damage? NOT even a single full digit. In comparison, in Ma, moderate is 103..High is 134. That is a big difference when everything is slotted..and for a set that idnt big on dps (so I hear)..I just cant help but wonder..why.

I am also trying not to think how much better the set might be on a stalker..with teh ease of crits, extra beefy attack in AS, and not having to pick something to get a Form.

Oh, also. StJ and Tw BOTH benefit a lot from being able to start a combat at Max (as in, combo 3 or Full Mo)..which in staff, you cant do. A lil sad.

One thing that I see lots of people being shocked about is that, if you get booted as the trial loads, you can now send a tell to the leader, and have them reinvite you. This also works midmission, if the LFG rejoin function is not working.

In case people didnt realise..it IS up in teh store, right now..I am plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaying it!

Thanks for the replies..and way to generally, totally MISS the point I was trying to make.

I know they can drop of anything in trials, I know its random. I know that, random being random, they should drop anywhere!

I also know that the perceived pattern in which I am getting catalysts...may be 'random' but does not seem very random. Nor do when they drop. Again..as Hopeling says..more killing in a certain part of the trial, more random chances. But since it is all random ANYWAY, it should still..be..random.

I am NOT looking for a magic spot or way to get these things, I was just curious to see if anyone else had noticed them coming more often in phases of the trials etc.

Talking of random still, I can 100% certainly say that over 75% of purple drops I get (without doing missions at 4/8) come from the prisoner phase in BAF. Is that because of how many die? Because I 'dont' run everything else on 8 players? Again..random being random..that phase is clearly more random to me than others.

Just looking for some very subjective personal opinions here..

I have been collection the enhancement catalysts over various alts for two weeks now and have observed some patterns, in the randomness. Obviously this is just MY findings, but curious to see if anyone else has similar experiences.

I will log in the toon I am going for the EC on, and start doing trials. Call this a play session, from at least one trial, up to 10, back to back, until I get it..or get fed up and switch.

In this many, I have found two very common outcomes. Either the toon will get an EC in the first 1-3 trials I do (regardless of what they are..so it seems) OR it will take much much longer, often with me giving up for that session.

As for the 'locations' of the drop...that is..what trial was it, what were you doing when it dropped..I see the following very subjective patterns..

Baf - the first 40 WWs or prisoners (I still get FAR more purples on the escape phase than EC's though).
Lam - havent got a single one here.
Keyes - just fighting mobs at the terminals, seem to get most of them here.
TPN - pulling terminal mobs.
Mom - None here either.
UG - Just the general mobs as you run through, getting one per UG trial done so far.
DD - The ambush inside Mot, getting almost 1 here per run.

Oh and the last mission is Sister Sol's arc..all those Bosses..almost one per run in here too.

Obviously a lot of these are occuring at the greatest concentration of mobs and killing in those trials..but it really seems to be focussed in those areas.

Anyone else found some spots to be more generous than others?

I was doing a MoM trial the other day, on my bane spider. Just for fun, I thought I would check out the stats on the AVs. While looking at the info, I noticed some odd things in the Resistance tab.

She had -20% resist, from Bruising.
As in..she was NOT resisting the -res (it is -20 I think).

But then, all my own sources of -res (venom nade, surveil, shatter armour) which all also have a value of -20....showed up as -13%, indicating they WERE being resisted.

Is this right? I am not sure about how Bruising works (I hate tanks) but surely a flat -20%, from a single power, shouldnt be doing a bigger debuff than say..a /rad corr with EF?

Noticed a huuuge bug the other night when playing with my Rad/Rad corr build. I was looking at my total end cost, with all my toggles + the 2 rad debuffs on.
Then I hovered over some of my attacks..and saw they has an Accuracy of 97%..this WITH all my IOs etc. Something was up.
SO I look at totals again..my Global to hit is -40%! For some reason, the debuff portion of the rad toggles is applying to you...so I had -20odd % resists, -40to hit etc etc.

Explosive Arrow is awesome? Yeah..cause an aoe, the kbs everything in different directions..is GREAT. Um. You know, unless there is other people around. And maybe if it wasnt lollethal damage. But yeah..great..maybe compared to the other crap in the set.

I also love how THB (pity the other head apparently is empty) relates RoA being awesome to..building a survivable blaster. Because obviously that has SO much to do with the archery set itself.. Its like saying that yes, set X does in fact do damage, after you proc it out, take musc and interface, and play with 2 kins.

Also, it is hilarious how first you say there is now reason to make BR over arch, because it is a one trick pony, with a trival nuke..and NOW you saying that..no, you think it is one of the better sets and the only one that can solo a GM.. Make up your mind.

Thanks also Air. As I said..Id prefer things that fit with the set itself (well, my idea of what fits) than just make everything equally awesome.

Opps..just notice dWaylorns thread, on a VERY similar topic, mentioning a lot of the same sets! Guess that is what happens when you are busy typing a post up, and dont check the recent threads!


Opinions, crazy suggestions, buffs and nerfs may follow. I am not pretending any or all of it would be or could be balanced, is needed and wanted. Some ideas are also regarding sets I have not actually played, going on general opinions, stories from friends and mids data.
Just some ideas I had while discussing the latest, and upcoming (I don’t know if they were a leak also, so I better not talk about them) powersets, how they differ from ‘old fav’ sets, and how they impact on our less played alts.

Looking at recent sets like beam, Street Justice, Titan weapons, Time; all of these sets have a mechanic, a gimmick, something that sets them apart from an ‘old’ set. We have the combos, momentum, Disint effects, and temporal selection which add extra effects, damage, or abilities to the basic powers.

I think these mechanics do a good job at adding an extra dimension, in the forms of play style, performance and concept/ideas. Maybe another question is..Do these sets NEED what is, at worst, a gimmick, to get you to play it (pay for it in some cases)?

Speaking as someone with at least one alt using the above 4 sets, I can say that even if those sets did NOT have that mechanic and extra performance..I would still play and enjoy the sets. A lot. I think that is a good thing, for the ‘base’ set itself.

Next question. Does this mean other (older) sets could ALSO use gimmick effects?

Obviously the answer to this includes such things as:
Does the set actually lack anything?
Is it performing fine as is (or better than fine)?
Could it use some extra effect?
Would more effects simply result in it being too awesome?

Having posed that question, I am now going to almost totally ignore it, and say that I think a lot of the older sets could really use a gimmick, in order to bring them up to par. Note, I don’t mean par as in a strictly dpa, number crunching, solo 4/8 par. I mean par encompassing performance, making them more fun or flashy to play, fitting with the ideas behind the set itself. Naturally all those things are very subjective (besides performance I guess..if a set does crap damage, it IS crap damage) but since these are my ideas..

One factor, that is rather important to me, is that as the new shiny sets come out, I find combos that I might enjoy more, find better performing, mesh better from a concept viewpoint. This leads to alts that I really enjoyed playing, getting left gathering dust. Obviously this partly comes down to making lots of alts and liking them all...but the difference in say..going from my StJ scrapper to my BS scrapper, from combos and thinking (a bit, sorta, sometimes) about the order I use powers in, to simply bashing attacks...is quite stark.

So..after the rambling..onto the ideas. Gimmicks for everyone is the cry! Shiny things for old sets! Now, naturally some of these things, if not all, would not be balanced, involved a lot of balancing, annoy people who like THEIR set just the way it is, thank you very much. Not to mention the devs saying it takes almost as much work to update a set as make a new one...which I don’t buy at all. 7 (for melee sets, 9-2 for bu/taunt/confront/as etc) new powers, all with new animations, effects, balance issues..compared to a few tweaks here and there...
But anyway! That is a different topic.

Basically, the idea would be to give most sets a Mechanic of some kind, related to the set, its powers, the general background behind it. This might be combos, extra effects, extra damage, things like KMs build up rech, you get the idea. I would be very hesitant about giving too many melee sets simple combos and calling it done, because then we go the other direction and have them all the same in THAT way.

Powerset Mechanics, with a general description of what it is, why it’s there, what it could do. Please note, if you happen to have a toon with a set I talk about and it has 5 purple sets, procs and perma hasten, and does NOT need a gimmick, good for you. For the general population this may not apply.

Ice Blast: Generally seen as quite weak in damage, trading it for slows and holds.
Ice Mechanic – Chill Factor. The more you attack with your icy blasts, the greater your control and mastery becomes. Attacks build up Chill on a target, causing it to take additional cold damage as it slowly freezes. Added cold DoT for each attack over one that hits a target, perhaps with a +hold mag effect to FR/BFR with X stacks.

Broadsword: Has a few inferior DPA attacks compared to kat/other melees, Evil Gecko had a thread detailing this.
BS Mechanic – Batter. A true broadsword relies as much on its weight as the cutting edge, and repeated blows hammer at your foe, eroding their resistance. Hits to the same target add a small (say..5%?) –resist effect, that can stacks X times, representing the battering they are taking. Perhaps a small addition smashing dot too.

Martial Arts: I see this as the nearest ‘copy’ set, with Street Justice. The MA buffs have really made it good, but it good use some flash.
MA Mechanic – Martial Technique. As you combine your attacks against a foe, the blows merge and become a string of connecting moves, giving them no opening to fight back. Attacks would give a small +rech bonus, stacking X times, perhaps increase stun chance/duration on a target.

Stone Melee: A good set, with some nice controls, suffers from a high end cost, some slow animations, and being smashing damage.
Stone Mechanic – Petrify. Your fists are encased in stone, and more than that, you can cause things to petrify with your attacks, turning them to rock and restricting movement. This could give small slow/-rech effects, as the foe slowly petrifies from attacks, perhaps with increase duration to the Mez effects in the set, and minor smashing dots.

Claws: Not much, if anything, is wrong with claws. It is lethal damage, but attacks are so fast it can do some nice damage. Still..
Claws Mechanic – Blood Loss. Slashing a person hurts, slashing them multiple times, opening up veins and arteries, hurts more, not to mention the risk of them bleeding out before you even finish. Attacks would have a chance to inflict Bleeding, small lethal dots, and if the target is already Bleeding, the take more damage from the basic claw attacks.

WarMace: No experience with the set myself (I hear on scrappers Clobber is great, the rest isn’t amazing) but I hardly ever see it..so in the interests of more variety..
WM Mechanic – Crushing Blows. Like the BS, a mace is about pounding your opponent into the ground, but even more so. Every hit after X on a target, can apply a small –res effect, with additional damage to the attacks that follow.

Radiation Blast: I have this on a corr, and while fun, the damage is poor. I feel it trades too much for the –def, which is useless after a point.
Rad Mechanic – Deteriorate. Your radioactive attacks do more than just physical damage a target, they cause decay at a molecular level. Attacks can cause minor energy dots, with repeated hits increasing the damage of attacks.

Energy Blast: The knockback seems to be the problem here, and it is a little boring.
Energy Blast Mechanic – Leech Energy. Your blasts of power actually siphon the power from a target, stealing away their energy and making their attacks weaker, as well as improving your own. Attacks could do small –damage stacks to a target, with small increases to the base /Energy component of your follow up blasts.

Elec Blast: Again, no experience, but from how many I see around, and how bad the rep seems..it is not a great set. It saps..but npcs cheat when sapped anyway, and the damage is sorely lacking.
Elec Mechanic: Current Flow. The longer something is exposed to current, the more dangerous it is (I just made that up, cause it sounds cool, if it isn’t actually true, forgive me). The blasts have a chance to apply Current to a target, representing the charge flowing through it. Charges would build up, causing additional elec attacks to deal more damage, have a high chance to sleep/hold, and perhaps a dot.

Fire Blast: I know what you are thinking..’he is suggesting changing FB, wtf??’ It is a great set, pretty much the most well rounded and consistent blast set we have. My ‘problem’ with it, is that it’s so good..the question becomes..why anything BUT fire.
Fire Mechanic – Ignition. When things get hit with fire, they burn, they char, they..Ignite! The basic attacks would have much reduced fire dot, maybe one tick per attack, but each adds to the Ignition level of a foe. Once the target reaches X, it ignites, and starts to simply burn up, applying great tics of fire dot, at an increased chance. Perhaps Blaze could get a stun tacked on vs Ignited targets.

That is about all the things I could quickly think of. Obviously there is quite a lot of the ‘stack attacks, get effect X’ going on..but that would, I think, just be easier..and make more...sense? I also think that making the attacks in the set itself do added damage, instead of –resist effects (to help with hard, resistant targets when solo) would be better..as it improves Powerset ability, but doesn’t magnify Team ability, as a strict debuff does. Effects could also be copied and adjusted for similar, such as elec melee having a Current mechanic too.

Again, I don’t think many sets actually NEED a gimmick. And I am in no way suggesting they get one, just to make them better, performance wise. I just feel some of our old sets could really use a bit of spit and polish, and slapping a neat little trick on each would not take that long (perhaps).

Thank you for reading

Looking at your last build try..more comments...

Still say mag 12 KB is overdoing it. 8 is fine. Regardless, if you are pvping, 12 is nowhere near enough..so I am assuming you are not pvping.

Caltrops..now slotted with PosiBlast?? Seriously? At least when you had the slow set in there it was helping your defence.

Repeating my comment about Uber Recharge levels..ie..you dont have many powers that actually benefits (Much) from rech that high.

3 slotting Retsu for rech? Yeah, it is a great power..but you are much better of getting your defence high enough to barely need it. And most of the time when your defence is not enough..you are fighting stuff that doesnt worry about def. That is..def + MORE def =..just def. ANd the amount retsu gives is overkill.