NightSable

I used COH the day I17 came put. Has not worked since that day. Blank screen only. I'll file a support ticket. Lowering graphics settings is not acceptable option to me. I'll just move on to another game that supports mac I guess.

Forget this whole DB thing, when you can come face me in the arena and get DP'ed!!!!

Making new blaster because the alt-itis demands it. I like RV and Sirens both for PvP, and have no concerns with arena or fiteklubbing.

Gonna go Sonic primary because I've done the Psi and Fire thing.

I was just about to reflexively click energy melee for my secondary when something happened. I saw the devices box, and started to wonder if I could make it work.

Any sonic/devices pvp'ers out there? I never see you if you are there.

I'm a 66 month vet with pretty much unlimited funding for IOs at this point. I have experience with EM and devices. EM seems to win all the arguments in my mind, but my finger keeps wanting to be different and click devices. Shall I conform to the masses and stick with EM, or shall I go nucking futz and try the devices thing? I'm feeling crazy. Someone talk me off the ledge.

My fire/shield has tanked romi when the tank quit. My Kat/SR is softcapped and has an amazing amount of recharge with aid self as well. I'd would say those are my two most "immortal" scrappers that I have. The theme is softcapped defense based on my experience and what I am reading, but almost any scrapper can do it that wants to. The fire/shield is probably the easiest scrapper I ever leveled however where the SR suffered a wee bit against some enemies in the lower levels. The Kat/SR however has survived team wipes against Infernal, and I have typed back, "would you guys mind hurrying back from the hospital, I really need to get to sleep soon?"

Of course, if you really want to be immortal, you need a kilt wearing Broadsword/regen running around yelling "There can be only one".

Yes. pvp is worth going into. You would be wise to get some IO's if you want to be more survivable. Given that, the only undefeated toon in pvp is the one that has not gone into pvp, so don't take it too seriously. Get your accolades. Get a good build. Get some extra perception, hp and recharge when you can. Get good mez and kb protection if you can. Accolades are great to get because the task forces give you enough merits to buy a couple of decent IO's or a whole lot of recipe rolls if you prefer to gamble. Do hami raids (some of those sell for a lot). Do a task force at night, and then when done go to the pvp zone. You get dual builds even, so you can make a PvE and a PvP build if you feel so compelled.

While IO's make a huge difference, the player themself makes a big difference too, so there is nothing wrong with pvp'ing some before you have your build finalized. Consider it training. You do not need to be uber overnight. It will take time to accumulate some of the IOs if you do not have money on another toon to transfer it over and it will take practice to know how to best use your toon.

P.S. Personally, I wish with GR, or in the near future, they would restart PvP from scratch and take some veteran pvp'ers of all AT's who have played through the various versions of the game, as consultants to help to make something playable and enjoyable to all on some level. I bet the devs would not even have to pay some of you for some limited time.

Well I got up to level 46 with my Traps/DP, and began to put some IO;s here and there. I am already softcapped to AOE, and soon will be softcapped to ranged with a few more slots and purchases. I am actually at least 37% defense to anything, so not to bad considering I'm not 50.

The IO's and procs help a lot (as with any build you could argue). I haven't had endurance problems, but I'm on a defender, so not quite as rough.

It is very very fun to play on teams. I actually do like the animation. Still needs some love however. Hail of Bullets could be dangerous actually for a blaster. For me, I use as a finisher, not an opener (so usually aggro is already off of me). Piercing Rounds is sort of silly for animation and has the absolutely smallest cone (a straight line - almost) that could exist, so I consider single target (where you sometimes get lucky). I will finish to 50, and will probably only invest a total of 200-300 million in the toon with IO's (which isn't much, but traps is so easy to softcap to aoe and range anyway, may as well).

Style over substance still.

Devs, a few recommendations to bring in line with other blast powers.

Speed up animation time on executioner's shot. Change Piercing Rounds to single target and increase the damage 25% and add knockdown ( an increase in recharge time is a fair exchange here) . Swap Ammo should be a DP inherent. Replace swap ammo with aim. Decrease the Hail of Bullets recharge time 25-50%. Leave Bullet Rain alone, it works pretty good, although animation gets a bit silly to some. I'm sure others will have feedback.

Finally, when are we getting unlockable pistols. I want my rularuu that shoots eyeballs.

LVL 31 now. Must admit, the defender damage has become much more lackluster, but as a defender, I guess I can't complain too much. The great animation is starting not to make up for it, although I love Executioner's shot(position toon just right, and you look like you are actually executing someone). With traps and DP, I see lots of small little orange numbers. I was able to solo the EB Heracles at lvl 23 with one red insp and one purple. I think it was the uberness of traps that made up for it. The killshot was done by acid mortar sadly. Got bullet rain, and I could see a "Wanted" and "Matrix" influence in the animation design. Enough so, I have binded the statement "Dodge this" to Executioner's Shot (see the matrix when trinity shoots an agent in the head). Sorry, I got on a tangent. So with bullet rain, and this long and amazing animation, the damage totally sucked. The range was great, but the with all that rooting, need more damage.

Still, devs, before GR, give us AIM. It really is the needed. Thematically, you could take a second and aim your pistols, so, um, what gives. Swap ammo should be a freebie. As stated above, fire blasters don't choose DOT. Also, you don't get DOT all the time.

I also feel that the incendiary ammo is causing a fear effect which is annoying. I tested this by going solo into mishes and not using caltrops or acid mortar. 80% of enemies ran at 50% health. Cryo and Chemical Ammo don't seem to have the effect as best I can tell.

My midgame assessment for DP can be summed up as this. Style over substance.

Like many, I have started some DP toons and I am going to share my thoughts. Others should share their thoughts as well.
First, I have made a Traps/DP defender as well as a DP/MM blaster. Both toons are fun, but I like the defender more (which is rare for me as I usually like high damage toons) so I will focus a bit more on that.

Dual Pistols first though. Damage is a bit low. Lack of AIM. Long Animation. All fair to say. Swap Ammo (will come back to that) is neat idea, but has some issues for upside and downside.

The good stuff, cool animation, you can swap ammo which is cool, and it is just fun to play. IO potential is good (we will get to that). Also, a lot of people asked for it (athough oddly enough, they were scrappers, but oh well).

Likely, although only lvl 21 so I cannot be certain, it was not designed with pvp in mind and it may be hard to min/max. Hold on, I can be certain. This set is not for pvp, although I do look forward to seeing the guy who takes it to PvP and proves otherwise.

Swap Ammo: Great idea. The downside is that the difference is neglible so far. Against some enemies that resist lethal, you can add a 30% componant of either toxic, fire or cold damage. The secondary effects seem minimal, although they may stack in some cases (cold possibly). The downside is that it took the place of AIM. My suggestion is replace with AIM and make swap ammo a passive power that is just given at lvl 1 (not to replace a power). You cannot slot the power with any type of enhancement, so getting it does not provide a real advantage. The incendiary ammo may improve dps over time with the fire DOT componant, but if I want that I would just make a fire blaster.

Getting over my lack of AIM, I went traps defender (oh no, no build up like blaster sets, I will suck, right, maybe, we will see). Why traps? Well traps is great set in general as it does a bit of everything and offers some mez and defense for the owner as well as team. It was mostly due to mechanics of dual pistols. Redraw can be an issue for most. I find that traps is OK, because FFG is on, even if you are slept, and that you lay your traps and then can blast away. You do defender damage, so that is an issue for many, but in terms of redraw it gels decently. Trick Arrow would actually do well too if you set out debuffs first and then blast. FF and Sonic would work out. FF more because you can set bubs and then blast for 4 min. Active healing sets probably would be tough as the animation time would limit the ability to heal in some cases. That being said, healers should never be mandatory, but we all enjoy having them around. Sorry, meant to say buffers with heal powers as not to offend those who get easily offended. I think any set can work, but if redraw is stopping you from trying the set, consider the suggestions above.

So what does DP really offer besides cool animations and something new. It will be the true FOTM after all, because in one month, we will all be summoning demons. It does offer a lot of IO potential. I say this only in theory as I have not crunched out some Mids builds, but pretty much all of the powers are ranged or PBAOE (Hello, it's a blast power), but the secondary effects of defense debuff and KB is in most of the powers (plus a disorient in one). This makes it very much like a radiation blast set which is a great set to drop some chance for XXX damage procs in. Traps is well known to allow for interesting IO sets, and softcapping a traps defender is pretty straightforward and easy. I think the potential for an endgame traps/dp defender is actually pretty good, but perhaps in two weeks or so, I will let you know more.

Of course, I encourage more traps defenders purely for selfish reasons because stacked FFG is so full of win, the win is bursting the seams of its britches. Stacked buffs and debuffs beats down on anything pretty much, and thematically and /or conceptually, traps and dual pistols works.

Anyway, sorry for long post, but I admit I really enjoyed the set. Depsite my 5+ year vet status, I don't post too much. Share you thoughts thus far on what you have played and what you like and don't like about the set. Also, if anyone wants to crunch out a mids build, I would love to see it. I need to do it too, but I am at work right now, so can't work on that here.

Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew

I hope that they put it out today or tomorrow or wait until after Double XP weekend. Prefer before, but the servers will be busy with either event. Having the two at the same time would probably make game play just terrible.

It is good either way as you said. I put in volcanic gasses as well. I hold all AV's with ease, except Lord Recluse, although once I thought he was held for less than a second, but it may have been a late night STF induced hallucination.

Choking Cloud without Lockdown +2 hold was a 1/5 star power.
Choking Cloud with Lockdown +2 hold moves to a 4/5 star power.

I can't tell if it stacks to be honest.

Going outside of the box a little, here is a few ideas. Cap the defense on a fire/fire blaster and get the PBAOE attacks (hot feet, blazing aura, FSC, combustion all with a prior BU and Aim). They will try to run, but they wont get away in time. Blaze the boss or stragglers. Or perma eclipse a warshade, that can be brutal too but you may spawn cysts. Hey if you are going to farm, influence will not be an issue in the long run, so don't worry about the cost of softcapping a blaster. Archery/NRG is another choice that is fairly safe with range.

In general, with little work, a fire/kin can't be beat for farming though for overall safety and speed. People were doing it before IO builds, since containment debuted and hot feet damage suddenly doubled with that change. I find it pretty boring, even though I made a farmer back in the day.

Spines/dark or Spines/fire works. /elec causes too much fear with the end drain, although it can be done.

Assuming, you are going to "tank" hami or the mitos, I would think Stone, Invuln or WP would be up to task out of the box, but I think any well slotted brute could do it actually. Maximize your regen and hp. Also, get a self heal if your brute choice lacks one. Otherwise fill up on EOE's and have fun. If you want to just attack mitos, then i like fire/shield or dark/shield personally.

Sonic for AV killing and if lots of TF's. Fire for teaming a lot. Anything if solo will work well.

For concept, wait for dual pistols. Prepay and build one in March/April sometime. I think AR and archery go well with concept as well.

Agree with above.

So that being said, what are good blapper primaries and secondaries to try out. For primary, I would go energy as they have some great short range attacks or fire (blaze and fireball). For secondary, I would go energy, electric or fire. I have a fire/fire/fire blaster in which I chose some primary/secondary attacks that are great for blapping (hot feet, blazing aura, fire sword circle, combustion - lots of PBAOE), but she has a lot of IOs for defense. Between the defense and how fast I kill things, I could argue I am an effective blapper. Unlike a "pure blapper", I have snipe for STF and a lots of range attacks as well. I found myself blapping by accident more or less. As a concept tune, I wanted to make my character appear of pure fire, so with costume aura, blazing aura, fire shield, hot feet, I look pretty damn fiery.

If I go on a farm with a fire/kin, the fulcrum shifted version of me tends to upset some fire/kins as I kill the mob before they hit can replenish their end with trans.

Fire/fire or fire/nrg or fire/elec or can give a great blapping experience without feeling limited to only blapping. Want to try a pure blapper, then go nrg/nrg or nrg/elec IMHO.

Cheers

Choking cloud is skippable, but I would not skip it. I use on my Earth/Rad, and it is great. You cannot slot accuracy, but you can get improvement with IO's that have accuracy in. I use a full set of Lockdown for the set bonuses. The +2 hold proc hits frequently in my opinion, and I bring it up mostly for AV's, GM's and TF's. Of course, I have lockdown set in my volcanic gasses as well, so I hold pretty much everything. Most AV's are held for greater than 50% of the time and fairly quick. Of course Earth/Rad/Stone is pretty damn hold-ariffic. It probably synergizes best with Fire Primary because of hot feet requiring you to melee, but it is not bad once slotted.

I actually think it is a good hold for illusion as you do not have great "hard" holds, and sometimes, it is just great to hold someone. Despite sounding like a bad country song there, consider lockdown sets, or perhaps an easy place for purples.

Cheers and hold me,

Night Sable
aka Atomic Tera Lvl 50Earth/Rad Troller on Freedom

OK, dark gods, with an unlimited bankroll and full access to any sort of enhancement that actually exists, how would you slot Fluffy. Assume you have six slots.

I have deleted my last comment and will try to be constructive. Instead, try to re-write this guide and expand on things that would make a person want to play ice/ice. Give us some slotting suggestions (you do NOT have to post a build). What are the pitfalls of an ice/ice dom? What is it's strength? Can you suggest some strategy and tactics for solo and team play? Can I pvp with an ice/ice dom (OK, i know the answer to that)? These things, plus much more can make a good guide. You do not have to post numbers and stats even, but if I was creating a new toon, your guide would generate no interest. Obviously you like the ice/ice dom and you wanted people to know that, or you would not have wasted any time to put a guide out.

Kudos for putting a dom guide out in any way, but with all this feedback, this guide will be lost before the new year.

How much does to hit debuff translate into defense or can it be thought of in that matter?

Example 1 : Rise to the Challenge Scrapper version. No to hit debuffs enhancements in it. Surrounded by 8 minions (equal level - assuming it does not matter). The to hit debuff for each individual is the same or does it add up in some way like the regen power?

Also, in a dream build, how would you slot RttC.

Example 2: D4 defender. Application of TT + Nightfall. All 8 minions take get hit.
In a dream build, how would you slot TT and Nightfall?

For above examples, I am not asking if you would slot with to hit debuffs, I just want to see what an unlimited influence build would post in those powers.

So my own personal issue is I have played a lot of defense based toons, so I have gotten used to the idea that softcapping for defense makes you pretty damn God-ly, but I was wondering if it was possible to quantify the -to hit debuffs in terms of defense . Basically is their a -to hit debuff that floors the accuracy to the level of a soft-capped character.

With traps defenders, I recommend that you maximize your defense and try to work on soft-capping as it is not too hard at a fairly reasonable price. Don't have mids available on this computer, but I will make some overall traps recommendations. If you softcap, you probably won't need the healing powers to be honest.

FFG + Maneuvers will get you well over half way to soft cap with plain old SO's even. Get Aim or Tactics for the GSFC X6 for 2.5 % defense to everything. Tactics is another good choice over aim, but I would do one or the other. The gaussians chance for build up will randomly fire with tactics more often than with aim. The steadfast +3 defense is good. Not sure, but this takes you to almost 30% right here. If you can afford it, the gladiators pvp IO would be gravy (but you said no purples, and these are worse in price).

I love SJ, but for trappers, hasten is needed as you want these things to recharge up faster. You want to make sure acid mortar and poison trap are recharged as much as possible. You want SS so you can put a stealth IO in and get yourself into good toe-bombing positions if you are into that thing. You can put the stealth IO in sprint, but you have to remember to turn on SS and sprint for full invis. Get the full Blessing of the Zephyr set for more typed defense.

Freeze Ray, I don't think is terribly useful unless you have a second hold power, so not crazy about it, unless you are doing it for the sets. Perhaps see if there is another power that can take its place. If wedded to SJ, then you could always put hasten in there and keep leaping pool.

I like ice storm. Blizzard is probably the only "nuke" that drains endurance I would consider keeping on a defender. Caltrops + Aim + Ice Storm + Blizzard is full of win, and the FFG keeps on going when you are out of endurance, so enjoy. The slows will stack and keep folks in the storms with those three powers. Not sure you need caltrops, but I would keep it probably. The chance for damage in caltrops is fine, but you may get more bang for you buck with a plain old slow keeping folks in the caltrops longer. If you team with a lot of controllers who immob, then don't change it.


Sorry for the random advice and not posting a build, but basically I recommended the goal of maximizing defense. Let that principle guide you, and you will reak of awesomeness.

If PvP ( I know claws/SR not ideal for pvp, but let's not go down that road), or planning to solo AV's I would recommend it. Not necessary, but recharge is always nice in these situations. Not required, but recharge is better for most occasions, especially if someone applies slows to you. If you have the influence, then you can make an really pricey IO'ed build where it may be possible to skip hasten, but not required.

I take hasten on half my builds, and with my SR scrapper, I took it, but that is for AV soloing and the more speed the better. I'm also a 63 month vet and I can get SJ without having to pick CJ. If the build it too tight however, forget about it and enjoy. Claws is quick recharge as it is. If too stressful, make friends with kins and rads and let them speed you up.

What is the point of knockback? the original poster asks.

KB is a great tool in the hands of someone who uses it well. It is great form a damage mitigation basically from a game mechanics view. KB looks cool graphically, and unfortunately tends to attract players newer to the game. In fact, players that tend to enjoy comics and superhero culture would likely be attracted to this more than those that do not. KB is a part of comic books, cartoons, superhero, villian culture. Think of the big tank like marketed heroes. Superman has been knockedback. The Hulk (perhaps a brute) has been knockedback. The vast majority of heroes and villians have been knocked back.

To be honest, I think KB protection may be a bit overpowered. Now as I put on my flameproof jacket and hit elude to dodge the rotten fruit coming my way, lets be honest. In the numina TF, the last mish (SPOILER ALERT if new to game), features the monster Jurassik wielding essentially a giant club made of a tree trunk with a bus attached to the end. Hmmmm, to me, it seems reasonable, that Jurassik should actually have a chance to knock you back even if you have Integration and KB IO's in your build. Why? Well, personally, to those that have read comics, I do not feel an explanation is needed. I think other heroes or villains should have a chance for KB either way. To be honest, Jurassik should knock some toons through the wall into another room, and that would be completely awesome if that kind of KB could happen from a FUN point of view.

Sorry to turn the thread around on ya, but questioning the point of KB is a fair question, but one could easily argue with just as much logic, what is the point of knockback protection? Sorry to inform a few folks, the game was not actually designed for farming.

All that being said, I am not a huge fan of KB when used poorly, and KB based sets really are best left untouched until people get experience with the game or by someone who exclusively solos. If you find yourself teaming with somebody with KB, try talking to them politely, and giving them direction on how to use KB to the teams advantage.

Can I answer yes to both?

Marketeers rejoice!!!!

If simple Keynesian economics prevail, then the holidays could be a magical oppurtunity for investment.

Holiday sales of common salvage will likely reach record highs as people continue merit farming on Winter Lord mishes to the point of exhaustion. The amount of people not doing regular missions will push salvage costs to record highs not seen since the great market inflationary period immediately following the introduction of AE, unless the devs act soon. 8 merits per Lord Winter will be too easy to pass up for the average player as this will be the quickest way to to make merits over short periods of time.

Recommendations:
(1) Stockpile common salvage used in the standard IOs for levels 25-35 recipes immediately. Common salvage fluctuates on weekends and nights anyway, but it should be especially profitable during the holiday season.
(2) Sell Candy Canes immediately as the price shall bottom out due to massive oversupply. This may lead to early short term profits, but long-term, the investment is risky. Get in and out early if you are going this route.
(3) Hold good recipes as they have long term value. In the short term, the merit farmers will be able to build the recipes they really want, so you may take longer to sell them in the immediate season.

A short term strategy in investment usually leads to all sorts of mishap, however if human behavior prevails as one would expect, the winter event shall mark the most profitable period in Paragon and the Rogue Isles history.

10 merits for 10 minutes of work if teams are well coordinated and use RF2009 global channel on freedom. 2 merits for killing the winter lord spawn in the cities (about 1 minute to do). 3 minutes waiting for special gift timer. 5 minutes max to kill lord winter and the guardians. That's a merit a minute. I think that tops out an speed ITF or certainly challenges it. The thing is there is no diminishing returns on the merit awards. My buddy made about 300 merits yesterday.

I sold candy canes early on, although I wonder if the value would have dropped as the market must be saturated by now. Made some KB IO's with the merits, and sold em fairly cheap actually (10 mil/io). I think I made about 150 million influence in about an hour in the end. For a non marketeer and non-farmer, it was a good day.