Moonlighter
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Posts
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Joined
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I don't think I could say "gratz" better than the Santorican vid...
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One thing that influences the discussion is that Brutes are flat out better in most big game hunting and stress tests we fabricate to test power builds. The fact that they can act as a tank for a group is icing on the cake.
The only place I see scrappers having an advantage is PvP where burst damage actually matters. -
Soft cap is very good, Shield Charge is fun.
But AAO is just over the top god like. -
Quote:I absolutely agree here. The first step for playing with IOs is going to WW and starting to slot out your attacks with cheap IOs you are picking only to increase your enhancement values. My go to set is Focused Smite. The IOs with three or four enhancement values (like Acc/Dam/Rch for example) have more total bonuses than the ones with 2, so I like the cheap Focused Smite IOs with 3 enhancement values while leveling. Using these to add a lot of Recharge and Endurance Reduction while keeping your damage above 90% and adequate accuracy will itself help with two problems; recharge and endurance management.Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
The best bang for you buck based on your build is to simply frankenslot your attacks for end redx and/or recharge in addition to what you already have for accuracy and damage.
Consider the 4 slots you have for Hack
1 Acc / 3 Dmg. Let's assume you have level 40 generic IOs.
38.6% Accuracy / 97.3% Damage
Now, with frankenslotting. Using set pieces for their enhancement value and not for their set bonuses, you can slot Hack this way:
1 level 40 Focused Smite Acc/Dmg
1 level 40 Focused Smite Dmg/End
1 level 40 Crushing Impact Acc/Dmg/End
1 level 40 Generic Damage
43.4% Accuracy / 95.9% Damage / 43.4% End Redx
Your attacks burn far more endurance than your toggles so simply having a SOs worth (33%) or more in your attacks will do much more for endurance management than anything else you do. Toggles, for the most part, don't burn that much endurance relative to using attacks.
You don't have to use the exact set pieces listed above. Just find the cheapest Acc/Dmg piece of the appropriate range and mix and match until you get the enhancement values you want.
If you devote 5-6 slots per an attack you can also increase recharge along with end redx which will allow you to be less reliant on buffs like hasten since the attacks will naturally recharge faster on their own as opposed to relying on a global buff like hasten or speed boost.
Once you've dabbled in frankenslotting (called so because like the Frankenstein monster you are hobbling together cheap IOs from different cheap sets) you can start (when you get to 47) put together set bonuses.
The first IO you should get, by the way, is the Steadfast Res/Def unique IO that adds 3% defense. Lately it's been going for about 12 million and it is probably the best IO for someone with a defense set looking to increase overall defense. -
My problem with going for typed defense (and you end up doing it a lot if you have WP and Invuln scrappers) is that the sets that give you them have virtually no other bonuses.
If, for example, I am building out melee and ranged, I am going to be looking at Obliteration, Touch of Death, Mako's, and Red Fortune as my main stays. Just slotting out for defense using these sets gives *lots* of extra damage, some decent recharge, procs in my attacks, and extra health. The only weakness with this strategy is if I need a *lot* of recharge for a certain chain it's tough to live with Mako's and ToD giving only ~60 base.
When I swap and start building out SL, FC, and EN the sets I use are Kinetic Combat (4 piece), Eradication, Cleaving Blow, and (with a defense set) lots of Aegis for F/C. Not only do these sets provide less overall enhancement because they are lower level, but additional set bonuses are almost non-existent. Once I slot 4 Kinetic Combat I am also force to slot two additional multi-IOs to round out the basic set bonuses.
Right now I have a MA/SR and a MA/WP that I am slotting. Both fit the theme for my main so I am deciding which to keep theme wise and which to retool into a different package.
My MA/WP is slotted to hit around 35 S/L, 40 F/C, 35 E/N defense. To do that, however, I will have to use my attacks to build S/L and I am giving up a lot of other set bonuses. Granted the extra health, S/L resists, and large regeneration is a big boon for that character but I lose a lot of offensive power slotting this way. -
I know I want to use it usually in passives. If Energize is always up though I was looking to grab the 6 piece Numina's ranged defense.
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Just when the power is activated, or as long as the regen of the power is active? In other words, if this power is near perma will the unique keep up the regen/recovery while the regeneration of Energize is running or will it fire when the power is activated and then run out and wait the entire cycle?
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Good advice Umbral.
One thing I want to point out is lately all my builds seem incredibly short on slots. One thing I find myself doing to save slots is slotting out Focus Chi with Gaussian's and then leaving FA with one default slot. Since FA now only provides a relatively low ToHit I pretty much use FA only to combat heavy accuracy debuffs. -
Quote:I took it to be more of a Siphon Power effect, but I have no inside info on that. I just mentally mapped Kinetic Melee onto Kinetics.Originally Posted by Warkupo
I'm not about to go stalk Castle until I find the correct post, but I recall him hinting at some mechanic where the more damage you take, the more damage your kinetic melee does.
As cool as KM sounds I am still more psyched about the staff/polearm set being on the docket. -
Quote:Incidentally, my long term hope is that the new Staff is good enough that I can just drop MA off my main and alts and just beat up bad guys with a stick.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Here's the inside story:
BaB: Hey Castle, I got the new guy working on some ultra cool new melee animations for MA. I think Arcana is really going to like these.
Castle: Yeah, I finally worked out a new set of secondary effects for MA too. Its got everything: end management, heals, buffs, debuffs. Arcana is going to flip out when these go in.
BaB: ...
Castle: ...
Bab: You're not going to give these to MA, are you?
Castle: <smiles> Got the new guy working on a Kinetic set already.
BaB: Arcana is going to rip off your head and &!#* down your neck.
Castle: Yeah. God I love this job. Wait'll the intern finishes up that Elusivity-based bullet-time secondary. -
Edit: Don't want to derail into a DPA versus "formula" discussion.
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It strikes me in the same vein as Force Unleashed. Which is kind of awesome. Long animations don't doom a set as long as the DPA is competitive. In fact, often one or two long attacks with excellent DPA can actually mean the set has a great attack chain with less recharge. Just don't pair it with Regen or suffer Shadow Maul death. Anyone who runs Dark/Regen probably knows what I mean.
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Quote:I agree, even though I think the nerf is justified. It's still annoying to stall out my alts while I revisit all my high level "finished" builds that use it. The most annoying thing is that they are sitting on freespecs, so I have to deal with it before this goes live or I'll lose a freespec.Originally Posted by Werner
It's just annoying. I won't be gimp. I'm just frickin' annoyed at needing to deal with it. And frankly, that goes for buffs almost as much as nerfs. Who moved my cheese?
EXACTLY. -
Quote:I am pretty hardcore about my builds; 5 LotG recharge, multiple BotZ, Miracle + PerfShift + Numina uniques... but I can't even imagine how I'd even begin to go about acquiring a Gladiator's. Do you grind PvP for them or do you really make that much Influence?Originally Posted by Effy_On_Malibu
My FM/SD final build is one IO from completion, i just need the Glad armour unique.
Had a set of gladiator strike ready too go in, which can't now i need too slot Mako's and i'm gunna have 2 loose 2 slots from somewhere too get the AOE from Stamina.
Total pain in the ****, especially as i 100% need the glad armour now. Atleast before my build worked without it. -
The question: Is the link a vid to the Bourne supremacy fight or a keylogger?
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Quote:Yes, all temp powers are affect by recharge buffs as far as I can tell. It comes up faster under Hasten for example.Originally Posted by Vitality
What is the recharge on Sands of Mu?
I read on paragonwiki.com that recharge buffs affect this power...is this true? -
Without being able to slot accuracy or damage, Sands of Mu becomes more and more useless as time goes on.
That said, I kept Shadow Maul in my build for a few reasons:
~ If you are good at lining it up hitting 2-4 is better DPS than anything else you have from DM.
~ With the lack of AoE DM needs all the multi-target help it can get.
~ It made a good mule for IO bonuses.
~ It's a good jousting power in PvP.
~ I need something to do while Shield Charge recycles. -
The MA minimum set with Hasten and some recharge is Storm Kick, Crane Kick, CAK, Focus Chi, and Dragon's Tail. Everything else is skippable. This assumes you can get enough recharge to have the SK -> CK -> SK -> CAK attack chain, which is the highest DPS.
Hasten is very very advantageous because not only is it needed for the optimal attack chain, but is dramatically increases the uptime of Focus Chi and it gets your only AoE attack up again so much faster.
But one of my pet peeves with CoH in general (and MA) is that Hasten provides way too much performance boost for a power pool power. -
Quote:In high recharge builds, it is actually a significant boost to sustained DPS. With Hasten you can easily get the recharge under 30 seconds, which is more than 33% uptime. Having such a significant boost to damage up one third of the time is more than an occasional damage burst.Originally Posted by mauk2
If you want more damage, slot more stuff, period. Recharge is the key if you want damage. On a WP, you're much better served with Focused Accuracy and frankenslotting more recharge/damage.
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Quote:One thing I hate about defense debuffs is that unduly punish non-defense builds. Defense offers protection against them since you still have to be hit. Where as a high defense characters can have a defense cascade failure, resist characters with low defense immediately double incoming damage. I'd like to see defense debuffs limited so they wouldn't reduce you beneath base defense. This would still take away all the mitigation of primarily defense based characters, but Resist characters would weather those enemies better.Originally Posted by Silverado
Defense debuffs will really ruin your day though, really.
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Quote:I have always viewed that the scrapper section as being far more valuable as a resource to understand the way the game works and a source of discussion on balancing the various sets that a place to grab a min-max build, even though it is also good for that.Originally Posted by New Dawn
I admit I don't venture into the Scrapper section much, it's maybe only for a period where I am happening to be looking at some Scrapper I have, which has a primary and secondary that is currently being talked about. From the period I had I saw many builds with many PvP IOs included.
From doing so I had even recieved PMs asking who I think the best Min/Maxxer in the Scrapper section is, of which I couldn't give a poo and said so. But from that however, I got the impression that some people maybe coming here into this section to try and min/max as best as they can. Other sections tend to just get people somewhere near and/or started. -
Quote:Good points, although the best builds actually do take a huge time commitment. I just don't have to impose upon 24 other people to help me and then compete with them for the rewards we eventually earn.Originally Posted by Shred_Monkey
By the time you get that gear, you're not really exceptional anymore. This game however, clearly has huge payback for mathmatical/logical planning skills and doesn't require an enorumous timesink to place that offline planning into execution.
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Quote:I agree with you. My earlier point was that wouldn't it just as fun, or perhaps even more so, if set bonuses just carried to any level so long as you still retained the power itself? Then you would have more freedom about what and when to slot powers.Originally Posted by BrandX
Looking at mids you can see the difference that 12.3 difference makes, at least concerning END usage and recharge of powers.
I myself use lvl 33 IOs for exemping purposes. I know with lvl 50 IOs, I'd get more out of the sets. But I like to have the set bonuses for when I'm exemped too.
Now some don't plan to exemp, for them, id say go lvl 50 sets.
I however exemp for TFs (not usually normal missions)...sooo...I LOVE to keep those bonuses. -
Quote:I'm not talking about frankenslotting; that's an entirely different beast. I do frankenslot and I'm not really bothered by replacing ultra cheap IOs.Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
It depends. Sometimes I get a drop in the teens or 20s that works great at the time but isn't really from a great set -- pounding slugfest, for example -- I would let that ride until I found something better or until I got to a higher level and was working to complete sets. At that point I would just put a Mako or Crushing Impact or whatever right over it.
If it was already a low level Mako and I was going for that set, I would probably keep it at the low level, especially if I was at or close to ED caps or if the difference was marginal, and it usually is.
The only things I have respecced out so far have been HOs, but I expect if I ever did a major revision of a character I would save as much of the good stuff as I could and prioritize on value and rareness. Meaning that the rarer and more valuable a particular item is, the more likely I would be to keep it.
I have a sinking suspicion that many others do exactly as i do. -
Quote:There are people who say "it's only 12.3% upgrade, why bother?" and there are people who say "it's a 12.3 difference, OMG that negates an entire purple set bonus!"Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
I'm not sure why you seem to feel compelled to swap out for level 50 sets, Moonlighter. My defender, for example, has full sets of level 30 thunderstrikes in his single target blasts. That gives him 56.6% acc/end/rech and capped damage. Swapping out for level 50s would give 68.9% acc/end/rech and capped damage. I've already got accuracy out the wazoo, and the end and recharge would make differences of less than half a second and half a point of end even on the longest recharging and most costly of the attacks.
I'm apparently one of the latter.