Narkor

My Kat/WP scrapper is about to hit 50 (possibly before the end of the day) and I was looking at the few builds that I've planned for her.
Well, to make a short story, I don't like any of them, although I'm pretty sure my last one (linked below) can be /made/ playable.

A few things I'd like to point out before you look upon the build:
- I don't have billions, so even if I wanted to slot five Kinetic Combat sets, I wouldn't have the money to do so.

- The same goes for the PvP IOs. Although you can farm them up via Alignment Merits or with the incarnate trials, it would take quite a while and I already have much to do with those. Not that I don't plan on eventually getting them on one character or another, it is just a few roads ahead of me at the moment.

- Most Epic Power Pools feel very unattractive to a weapon user, mostly due to redraw. And due to WP's already high recovery rate, going Body Master for the passives feels like a total waste. Soul Mastery looks pretty neat, with Shadow Meld and only taking up two powers (one being a ranged attack -good for 'those situations' where you might need one). I'm not even sure if I should take an EPP or not, to be honest.
I can't help but ask, is Shadow Meld worth it? Even if I managed to make it permanent, I'd still have to use it every fifteen seconds. I can't help but think that it would be hella annoying.

- I haven't been able to reach 32.5% (my personal favorite soft spot) in any defense without Divine Avalanche or Shadow Meld. One of the many reasons why I dislike most of my /WP builds. And I don't see it getting any better without investing a ton of inf into it...

- ... and hurting my recharge. I'm not even sure of the best ST attack chain for Kat/, but I'm pretty sure you need more recharge than what I already have. I've been struggling to fit in some recharge in my builds, but it's been a real pain considering the moment I would face any enemy that'll throw a ranged or area ability, my defense wouldn't be worth much.

- I'm planning to go Spiritual Alpha and, I don't know what for the other incarnate abilities next. I'd guess that the Ageless +Recharge could help, but that's about it.

So, that's pretty much it on the side of my observations. Here's my dreadful build:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

I used to be a support guy in just about every game I've played until recently, about 1 month before coming back to CoX.

Long story short, I rolled a Kat/WP Scrapper, Dark/Dark Brute and am nearing 50 on my Bane.

Out of all of those, I enjoyed the Kat/WP the most.
Take that as you wish.

The AE issue with the 'you are already on a tf' message preventing a team from starting another missions seems to have spread, as it was happening a lot throughout my teams today.

A quick an easy trick to solve this that some kind soul decided to share was to switch leaders. The former leader can take the lead back afterwards, it only matters that it changes once though. (edit: silly me not reading completely/correctly everything, the above poster mentioned this.)

As for the hasten issue, I've spotted the issue a lot throughout ITFs (the tf that people seem to want me in the most, or simply that is ran the most during the times I play -I'm just an ITF magnet), but I rarely lag, if ever. Even in the few BAFs that I've done on my characters who can achieve perma hasten with outside buffs, lag has been a non-issue. I haven't done many runs nor has the trials lasted long enough for me to notice any issue with hasten, though.

Thank you for the answer on the vengeance one, I'll keep an eye out to make sure I don't use it when I am already affected by it.

I wouldn't mind costume pieces being 'unlocked', account-wide, by your level 50, end-game clearing character.
Provided that they are available to further characters you create. At character creation.

Like another poster, I don't run around with the roman armor. In fact, I have a costume slot that is a roman costume, but I don't use it often. I only put it on when I run an ITF, in hopes that others do so too and we can have a thematic run. As you can call it, for shitz and giggles.
Other than that, my characters aren't romans. If they were, I'd want them to look like one from level 1.

I can somewhat understand on the weapon side of things, but even then, the generic customization requires a lot more options for me to fully support (aka not be against) this.

On a side note, when I join a group, I always look for the character with the costume that I like best and pick that one as my first target for Mystic Fortune. I also try and give them wakies or TP them first, if I can.
Think of it as an unwritten, unmentioned reward.

I'd really hate it if we all started with plain tights and had to unlock costume pieces as we grow in strength. (Just a thought, by the way. Not directed at any given post.)


All in all, the smaller the impact something has on a character's costume/outfit (think maybe a wristband or a small collar -hell, I would have made npc-related (think group) emblems and the likes drop like flies throughout the whole game), the more I am unaffected by how accessible it is from level 1 onwards. Things like Capes and Auras, I can understand, it also adds some sort of feeling of getting stronger (as well as fit in with the lore), but when you get into full sets of 'gears', I just can't help but be against it.

I wasn't there for many of the anniversaries.
Yes, I'd like the badges. Actually, I'd like to have been able to be there to get them (did I word that correctly?).

But really, I'd be disappointed if they were available for paragon points.
I'll also be disappointed if they aren't turned into account-wide badges.

And this is coming from someone who LOATHES temporary availability on ANYTHING in games.


Lastly, I don't think they should be badges. It's just annoying imo. No idea what they should be though. Figure that out yourselves!

I'd also like for customization on the 'ice' look. I mean, I understand some people like being a walking block of ice, but I'd like to be able to choose something less 'blocky'.

I've been playing an ice/ice tank for a little while (still leveling) and I have to say, it doesn't feel fit for a scrapper in its current state (so yea, I agree with the long post above).

In parallel with the other thread about lore pets, I just looked over at the carnies on paragonwiki and wow, I surely am disappointed.

Hand grenade guys. Nades. Really, just try them.

Be careful though, may hurt yourself!

I was thinking of making yet another alt, this time involving strong and pretty punches to the face with SS.

I was originally thinking of a tanker, but I think I found what I really wanted.
Have to read a whole thread now though.

I'm not sure if this is the place for this, but I'll post anyways, as I haven't found any other place where this might belong.

That being said, I've come across two 'bugs' very recently. In fact, these happened just a few hours ago.

The first one is possibly the most irritating one. As I was doing some missions in Architect Entertainment with two other players, we were quickly confronted with this 'it appears you are already on a task force and therefore cannot start a mission architect. blablabla' message as I tried to re-select the same mission for our team. Of course, naturally, we simply reform the team. But we kept on getting the same message, every single time we would try to start another mission. After a few runs, we decided to change the mission, but nothing changed and the message kept coming up when I tried to start another mission.

A few things on this, as I may have a lead onto what may have caused this, although this is purely speculations and nothing more. We were originally four, but the last member encountered a game crash and, after coming back to finish the run, left the team. I have seen similar events before, where someone disconnects while still on the team, this causes problems (notably, not allowing anyone to enter the mission or the issue I mentioned above). but once the team is reformed, normally there are no further problems. Note that we reformed after every single mission/arc (and we did quite a bunch).


The other bug, or issue or whatever you want to call it, that I encountered was with vengeance. I would use it on whoever would drop dead first (naturally) and, with enough recharge (some from procs), it would come back up before the buff would completely fade out. The 'bug' arises upon using vengeance during that small lapse of time where the buff is still up and the power is recharged. To make a short story, the buff did not refresh nor stack and vengeance would go on cooldown, while the buff would fade out a few moments later.

Is this intended? I'm not really seeing the point of this, as it already costs a high amount of recharge to get vengeance back up before its own buff fades, it would only make sense if it refreshed itself (not to forget that in a typical group, the opportunities to use vengeance are quite low).


While I'm at it, I'll throw out a third issue I've had (this one not so recently). Whenever I manage to get near permanent hasten on a character and I end up on a team where I am buffed with a bonus to my recharge (Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, etc.) that would make it permanent, I cannot active it before its duration ends. I see it being fully recharged, but whenever I active it, it simply says 'still recharging' while the buff fades. Am I the only one getting this issue? Is it caused by lag ?


In any case, thank you in advance for your responses, they are greatly appreciated.

Hello there, Arcticwidow. I am having a nice day, how about you?

Onto your post,
Powers from your 'wolf' spider tree (aka the ones you had access to pre-24) will cause you to draw the arachnos gun. If you're using the bane spider mace, it will cause redraw.

An option I'd put up here for you to consider is to go for the Rebirth Radial (or just the Rebirth in general) destiny slot. It functions somewhat as a heal and the Radial one gives immense regeneration that fades off over time.
This would allow you to forgo Aid Self (and Aid Other) and fit in a mace area attack from the Mace Mastery pool, which would be my choice.

As for your question as to whether Venom Grenade can crit from stealth, I am unsure but I would point out that any power that can crit should have a line of text in its description that says so.
Basically, right click on the power, select info, go to the detailed info (the tab with the numbers) and scroll down. If there is a line where it mentions that it deals damage 'only if stealthed or target placated' or something along those lines, than it should. Otherwise, it probably doesn't.
For my guess, I'd say no. But I didn't look.

Hope this may help you.

Someone will probably be able to help you more, but I've noticed a few things and have some spare time.

- You don't need Acrobatics. You already have much overkill KB protection without it and with Plasma Shield, you have the Hold protection covered.

- What set bonuses are you going for, exactly?

- Your defenses are extremely low, you should try to focus on getting set bonuses that will improve an area or two. You could choose to go for Smashing and Lethal or the positional defenses (Melee, Ranged and AoE).

- I have a feeling you are frankenslotting way too much. Although I am no expert in this field, it appears as though it is hurting you more than you could think. You should really try to focus on getting set bonuses along the lines of +Defense, +Damage and +Recharge.

- Some of your powers are extremely underslotted. If you want to use them, I'd suggest investing some more into them. Notably, Weave, Mu Lightning and Electrical Fences.

Something to 'flag' yourself has being eligible to receive tells from free players is fine by me.

The "click here to send a tell" option is neat, too.

As for my idea, just something I'd like to throw, is to allow free players to respond to a tell with tells for, say one to five minutes. Basically, when a free players receives a tell, he can reply back for the next few minutes or so.

So this is why Ball Lightning/Electric Fences has been going over my sound softcap.

Count me in agreement with this.

Exploration and History badges made account-wide or something along those lines.

an option to REMOVE THAT DAMN FOG OF WAR ON MY MINIMAP.

OH GOD GET IT OFF PLEASE...
or make it account-wide.

I'm already spending a good amount of time in this game, please don't make me run around a zone for some 'quality of life' stuff. ESPECIALLY if it's that damn fog of war!

I swear, if that tutorial map was used more than twice throughout the game... I'd have to explore it too...

Other than that, eh, badges, costumes, allow the vet badges and rewards to be purchasable only, and I mean ONLY, when an account would have normally been eligible for it had the Veteran Reward system been in place (aka you pay for 9 month, you can get the 9 month rewards. You don't, well you don't get them!). Hell, I'd like to see those rewarded as they are now, but eh, you greedy people wouldn't like that!

Did I mention costumes, auras, unmatched accessories, NPC costumes, that witch hat, more costumes, animations and much more?
Well, I wouldn't pay loads for them, or double my subscription, but I'd surely spend my points on those.

I think I read somewhere that Marauder's Unstoppable does not grant him any resistance to psychic damage.

Beside that, enjoy that huge damage increase and being well over the softcap?

Inferno on my corruptor. Yea... that much damage for my whole blue bar? Wow... how lame.
I'll admit it probably at level 32 (when you get it), so no IOs or whatnot, but still haven't thought have taking it after I respec'd out of during the 40s.

Other than that, brutes and scrappers. Mind you, not the ones you see everyday running around and faceplanting in your teams. No, I'm talking about those level 8 Kat/ or BS/ who stand tall after clearing a few packs while the rest of the team was cleaning the floor.

And, last but not least, my Night Widow. Really destructive and, despite faceplanting a few times during an ITF a few days ago, made another member of the team decided to 'roll one and do that too". Was pretty epic claw-ripping tbh.

This doesn't seem too bad, if you get over the fact that it's just... a very strange approach that can turn bad at any given moment.

The Paragon Market thing seems to be the worst of it all, but we'll have to wait and see, sadly. (Personally, as long as real money does not give access to it, which it probably will -sadly, I'd be fine with it).

Other than that, if I were making this change, I'd make sure that the current paying players get the most out of it, and even more. But alas, it appears as though unless you pay, you only have access to 2 character slots (and the ones obtained through paying and vet rewards) and will not have access to EATs.