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Ocasta

Apprentice

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  1. Ocasta

    Hand Clap

    POST-ACTION

    I can't imagine how anyone can portray SS as mediocre. You get the mainstay of your single target attacks early (incredibly early on brute, since they have them by level 8), and while the aoe is a long wait, it's also one of the best aoe's available to melee sets.

    I haven't seen anyone talk in any positive way about EM since they nerfed ET.
  2. Ocasta
    Btw when you buy a miracle or numina's, make sure you buy them at the lowest level possible (20 and 30 respectively). They will always be worth more at those levels since they provide the same effect as the max level versions but are available much much earlier, and they'll continue working for most of the exemping you might do.
  3. Ocasta
    If you don't mind spending a little time on the market I would buy a level 20 miracle recovery or 30 numina's, sell it, and then buy the IO's you want. For a level 30 numina's, I could buy a level 40 miracle, a level 50 numina's, a theft of essence, and still have a little money left over. This probably won't last so make sure you look at prices first.
  4. Ocasta
    fire/dark is always a good choice. The set will be very useful on teams and is one of the best choices for solo corruptors. The heal needing to hit isn't too bid of a deal. For one, slotted it'll have a 95% chance to hit so it'll hit most of the time, but really, you won't even need to use it that much. Once dark gets going (in the 20's when fearsome stare is slotted out), virtually nothing is even gonna hit at all. They'll all be stuck in a tar patch getting aoe'd down with a 5% chance to hit your team.
  5. Ocasta

    Mid's PPP numbers

    POST-ACTION

    I tried looking at the numbers using the in game link system, I'm actually not sure if that works correctly, but when I typed [Mu Mastery.Ball Lightning] the base numbers were higher than fire ball. When you consider the fire ball dot though, fire ball pulls ahead slightly. Also ball lightning did not have the crit listed in the detailed description (unlike fire ball). If these are correct, does that mean PPP's currently can't crit for us?
  6. Ocasta

    Mid's PPP numbers

    POST-ACTION

    Somewhere else on this forum someone mentioned that mid's PPP values are incorrect. It would make sense, since ball lightning does more damage than fireball according to mids, which doesn't make sense since it's secondary effect is end drain (while fire's is more damage) and since ball lightning only has 1 power prereq. Has anyone experimented with mu or other patrons yet and noticed if the damage is lower than in mids?
  7. Ocasta
    I've been messing with different builds trying to come up with a FM/SD one I like. I've looked at the 8 builds Fury Flechette posted (which were very helpful), but I didn't want to give up GFS (I like the GFS animation and I prefer the fire sword attacks, but the scorch/incin/scorch/cremate rotation doesn't have any). I don't have to recharge to use a 3 attack rotation with GFS, so I figured I'd try some builds that include GFS and use Incin > GFS > Cremate > Fire Sword as attack chain.

    Quick note, don't mind the levels at which I took powers in the builds, I always just click all the powers I want in a build without looking at the levels.

    I have a build that is pretty similar to the moderate build Fury Flechette posted, dropping the travel power because of ninja run and grabbing GFS. I used the same guidelines as he did, soft capped defenses, as much recovery and regen as possible, and recharge after that. The recharge on GFS is a hair too low for the chain without hasten up. I suppose a slot could be taken from health for a recharge in GFS if this gets too annoying.

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    Then I was looking at Mu as an alternative. Since Mu's aoe is only 1 power deep, a travel power would be possible again. Mu also does slightly more damage, although you do lose out on melt armor (I'm not sure if most people even use it since the value is so low). If mids is right, mu bolts does more damage then fire sword, with the same recharge and slightly lower animation time (these can crit like normal right?). Since it also has the advantage of being a ranged attack and fire has no redraw anyway I figured the chain Incin > GFS > Cremate > Mu Bolts would be good. Conceptually the fire APP makes more sense, but mu does seem like it'd be a pretty good choice. Since I had 2 spare slots and the stupefy set is very nice I took the slots from true grit's numina's to get the stupefy ranged defense instead and pick up some extra recovery/hp/recharge.

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    Any thoughts on these builds or the choice between the two?
  8. Ocasta
    Great information in this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=216944
  9. Ocasta
    I'm not looking at exp per kill, honestly I don't even know what a good number is there anyway. I was more looking at "I just killed 20 minions/lt's and my exp bar barely moved", where several large pulls later, it felt like I should have gained a little more than I did. It's probably because I'm 1 level from SO's and paying too close attention to my level since it's such a jump in efficiency. :P
  10. Ocasta
    Oh things are dying plenty fast, it just seems like I don't get much of the exp because I'm not doing enough damage. Root isn't fully slotted yet though and I don't have SO's or Enervating field yet (I don't grab it pre-stamina because of end issues). Once I have those I imagine I'll be able to do a lot more of the damage to get good exp from confuse.
  11. Ocasta
    My plant/rad is level 20 now. I've been turning up the number of heroes I'm equivalent to to get bigger spawns to confuse. The only issue is, when solo, where does my damage come from so I get exp for the kills? I can spam aoe root, but the damage isn't terribly high. I grabbed a bunch of single target attack options to help with soloing, but those aren't good enough for that because half the mobs are dead before I get to attack them.

    Is this something that's simply going to be pretty low until creepers/flytrap/app's? Soloing definitely isn't bad right now, but it just seems like some of the potential of an aoe confuse as such a low level is going to waste because I can't deal the damage to claim a good chunk of the exp.
  12. Ocasta
    Are those kinds of defense numbers really needed for normal play? I understand defense (and resistance for that matter) becomes better the more you have, but with 30% defense and DN debuffing to hit by 16%, that's essentially the same as soft capping defense, on a resistance based set. It seems like overkill in terms of survivability.

    If they kind of defense is really recommended, I can lose a bunch of recharge to swap in some obliteration and mako's bites or something similar. I know going for S/L would be a better choice considering the reactive armor defense numbers, but kinetic combat would cost like 200m per set. For the cost of one kinetic combat set, I could have every attack in the build slotted with mako/touch of death/obliteration instead.
  13. Ocasta
    I said at the start of my post, I'm avoiding expensive sets. With your changes you put in 4 kinetic combat sets and a luck of the gambler recharge, making the build over 5 times more expensive. I also lose out on all the lightning field procs, and the FS recharge proc which goes off almost every stomp. I'm not really sold on making the build that much more expensive for about equal recharge and more defense, while also losing several things.
  14. Ocasta
    Don't mind the levels for powers, it's a respec build and I didn't much look at the levels when working on this build. It's not meant to be a pure farming build, I wanted to be well rounded (which is why I picked soul instead of mu). I wanted to avoid extremely expensive sets, so purples, luck of the gambler, etc are out.

    From reading the forums, people said to aim primarily for recharge as ELA, and try for a decent amount of defense as well, which is what I tried to do with this build. I imagine, with DN, I should be plenty durable.

    Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.707
    http://www.cohplanner.com/

    Click this DataLink to open the build!

    Level 50 Natural Brute
    Primary Power Set: Super Strength
    Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
    Power Pool: Speed
    Power Pool: Fitness
    Power Pool: Fighting
    Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

    Villain Profile:
    Level 1: Punch -- T'Death-Dam%(A), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Acc/Dmg(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
    Level 1: Charged Armor -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(7), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9)
    Level 2: Haymaker -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(11), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13)
    Level 4: Conductive Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(15), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(15), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
    Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(19)
    Level 8: Knockout Blow -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(23)
    Level 10: Static Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(23), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(25), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(25)
    Level 12: Super Speed -- Run-I(A)
    Level 14: Lightning Field -- M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(A), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Dmg-I(27), Oblit-%Dam(29), Sciroc-Dam%(29), Erad-%Dam(31)
    Level 16: Grounded -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
    Level 18: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
    Level 20: Health -- Heal-I(A)
    Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(31), P'Shift-EndMod(31)
    Level 24: Rage -- GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(33), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(33), GSFC-ToHit(34), GSFC-Build%(34), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(34)
    Level 26: Boxing -- RechRdx-I(A)
    Level 28: Energize -- Dct'dW-Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(36), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
    Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(33), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(37)
    Level 32: Weave -- Krma-ResKB(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(39), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(39)
    Level 35: Foot Stomp -- M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(40), FrcFbk-Rchg/EndRdx(42), FrcFbk-Rechg%(42)
    Level 38: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(42), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(43), Efficacy-EndMod(43), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(43), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(45)
    Level 41: Gloom -- Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg(45), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(45), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50)
    Level 44: Darkest Night -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb(46), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(46), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(48)
    Level 47: Dark Obliteration -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg(48), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(50), Posi-Dam%(50)
    Level 49: Lightning Reflexes -- Run-I(A)
    ------------
    Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
    Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
    Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
    Level 1: Fury
    Level 6: Ninja Run



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  15. Ocasta
    Thanks for the replies. I'll probably go with rad since I'll spend a lot of my time grouped with a few friends (elec/cold troller and not sure what else yet). From what I gather, /rad still kills plenty well, just not as fast as storm, which is fine with me.

    What APP would you recommend? I was looking at ice and earth. Ice has powerful aoe options, whereas earth has a strong single target option, something I've seen mentioned plant lacks. Only real downside to earth is the armor is so obstructive.
  16. Ocasta
    I'm looking to start a plant controller soon and was considering going with either rad or storm. I see tons of mention of storm, so I'm guessing plant storm is a pretty good combo. On the other hand, rad has better endurance and less risk of getting hit by holds/stuns/etc (I hate having to carry around a ton of break frees to deal with the random disables). I'm open to other secondaries as well if there's another really good choice. Any thoughts?
  17. Ocasta

    Ss/ela

    POST-ACTION

    So I've been messing around with some builds for SS/ELA. I'm not really looking at a build focused on farming only, but more all purpose, so despite the thematic fit, I'd probably pick dark over mu.

    Only problem is, I'm finding it really hard to fit everything in power wise. I'd prefer to use SJ over SS, but I also like having hasten. Then there's 3 good patron powers to grab in dark, and pretty much every power in ELA is good (I know some people skip the godmode but I rather like those).

    So far, the easiest way to fit all this by far is simply skipping stamina. How viable is that for ELA? Obviously it'd be for a respec build, and one that can't mentor down too far. Skipping stamina I'd also lose health, which also means I can't slot numina's or miracle to help maintain my end between power sinks. I'm sure it's workable, but does it remain fun to play, without constantly being forced to stare at the blue bar and pray power sink comes up faster?
  18. Ocasta
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Emberly View Post
    Seems whenever this argument comes up on the forums, two things become clear:
    • Lotta people think their tank (or brute!) is the most important player on the team, and start arranging their viewpoint to support this idea
    • Lotta people (often the same people) expect others to alter their playstyle so the tank/brute doesn't have to
    Why does it keep getting repeated that the brute/tank/scrapper are the only ones that care about KB? You think a corruptor loves seeing his strong aoe that can hit 16 targets only hit 2 because of KB? Same for MM's, in fact, many bot MM's grab the mu immob (which has a much smaller radius than the black scorpion one) simply because of the -kb to prevent their pets from knocking things back. And the list goes on. A dislike for KB is not unique to melee, even if melee are the ones most likely to be frustrated by it.

    The issue is, as I mentioned in my previous post, that KB can easily reach a point where it is simply not helpful. In most cases, it is surprisingly easy for a team to hit the point where they just waltz in and destroy everything with little risk of anyone dying (made even easier by IO's). At that point KB has nothing positive to offer (besides the repositioning mentioned), but still the potential of being very negative in some people's eyes. This is not the same as asking someone not to use a debuff, or asking a brute not to attack, because their abilities do not feature tradeoffs or negative aspects. More damage is always a good thing, more debuffs are always a good thing. More KB is not.

    If KB had another effect, for example, making enemies take extra damage while they're getting up, it wouldn't be considered anywhere near as negative, because it would always have a positive aspect, even when the mitigation is not needed.
  19. Ocasta
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clouded View Post
    It's not always about you. There are 7 other players on your team that may benefit from the KB. IF the mobs are still alive after some of them are knocked away from you, then they'll stand up and come running right back since Mudpots has a very taunt aura.

    In other words, the mitigation from KB might not help your Stone Armor Brute/Tank but it might just give that squishy a little bit of breathing room.
    I quite clearly stated the mobs are on me. So no, it doesn't help anyone. The best thing that happens, the mobs still maintain mudpot agro and run back to me (assuming they don't stay at range), the worst thing, they turn around to kill a squishy instead. Knocking back mobs that are already locked onto a target that will not die from them serves no useful purpose to the team.

    To me, what it boils down to is this. KB, unlike most (if not all) other secondary effects can reach a point where is it only has the potential to be a negative effect without providing any positive effects. If a team has enough buffs/debuffs/tanking/control/etc so that mitigation is not an issue at all, KB has nothing positive to offer to the team anymore.

    In cases like that, many people find the KB effect to be negative or to interfere with their fun. If that happens, and it's the consensus of the team, it would be downright arrogant to insist you deserve to use KB powers anyway because your fun is more important than everybody else's combined. It's at that point people end up removed from teams because of their use of KB, or where certain sets are outright denied from teams because of their inability to control KB.

    Because of the way the game is designed, it's actually pretty easy for a balanced group to hit the point where they do not need more mitigation, so KB ends up losing it's only positive aspect, and the no KB mantra becomes more common.

    Edit: Actually I forgot KB can still be used to push mobs around to position them better. Sadly, this good use of KB seems to be extremely rare, and for every person that knows how to use KB well like that there seem to be 10 that turn the game into a bowling alley.
  20. Ocasta
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Barbie_Ink View Post
    Same feeling with SR, but they're just missing you.

    Now, the auto-hit end drain of dead carnies is another thing entirely. :/
    Sure, but with SR there is a chance of getting hit, and a chance of being detoggled because of said hit (if you're not paying attention to your endurance). I know on my SR I'll still kill sappers first either way, just in case they roll a hit. As ELA endurance debuffs/removal effects might as well not exist (save for crashes).
  21. Ocasta
    I have a claws/sr and a claws/ela. They're both in their 30's somewhere, and it's somewhat hard to judge how they'll pan out since SR needs some investment to become really durable.

    I don't think ELA is a poor choice or anything, my claws/ela was soloing on +0/x6, which I certainly wouldn't call bad. In the long run ELA is not gonna be anywhere near as durable I'm sure, but it'll have insane endurance tools, a godmode power for tougher fights, and a damage aura. The only real downside is that ELA seems to be that is is a pretty offensive set (dmg aura, endurance drain, recharge boost) at the cost of some defense and claws does not offer much in the way of mitigation to help out. By far the most fun thing about ELA though is watching a sapper just shoot you nonstop and not even caring. Endurance drains is one of those things that tends to really own most characters (like a sapper detoggling someone in 2 hits), and ELA is essentially immune to it (same for arachnos and the annoying mu).
  22. Ocasta
    I skipped to the end after reading some, but I'm not sure if it's been mentioned. On my stone armor character, I can guarantee you I pretty much hate all knockback that isn't used right (which seems to be most). If used on the mobs around me, it serves absolutely no purpose as mitigation since mud pots will keep everything on me, and granite might as well make me immune to damage. At that point I have to teleport to get back in range, and can easily lose agro on a bunch of things.

    Anyone saying knockback isn't ever annoying, I challenge you to play a stone armor character with someone who seems to think it's their team goal to knock everything to every corner of the map and then tell me knockback powers are always fun and never annoying.
  23. Ocasta
    Afaik Elec is the weakest single target damage of any brute primary.

    Also I've decided to play my claws/SR again. Not having a taunt aura was the one thing that really bugged me about him, because playing with friends I constantly saw everything just run off to them when I was way more durable. It was rather frustrating to not be able to hold things on me. I didn't realize evasion had a taunt aura built in.
  24. Ocasta
    So I make entirely too many different brutes, and as the title says, I'd like to pick one to focus on and IO out decently. The problem is, I can't decide which one to go with. I'm trying to decide between SS/WP, SS/SD or Claws/SR. I'm looking for a character that is pretty good all-purpose. Basically, I'd like to be fairly good at farming, but not at the expense of having a character that performs rather poorly on maps that don't heavily favor the powerset.

    In terms of how much money I can spend on the char, probably about ~500m atm, and I have a miracle already, so that helps. For that amount of money, I should definitely be able to soft cap the defense sets in my list.

    SS/WP. A very popular brute combo for a reason. I rather like this character, I'm just not sure how much IO investment pays off on WP compared to other secondaries. SS is very nice, although I hate the rage crashes.

    SS/SD. I don't actually have this char, it's just something I'm considering because of my SS/WP, since SD is a set that can really shine with a lot of IO investment. I'm not sure how much rage crashes would hurt this set though, since even my WP can get beat down pretty quickly from the rage crash -defense (although I think double stacking removes that part?).

    Claws/SR. Another fun character. SR seems like one of those sets that can become insanely durable with a good investment. The only thing I didn't like about this character is that SR has no taunt aura, which meant I couldn't hold agro very well in groups. This is probably less of an issue at higher levels where everything smaller just dies to aoe's instantly and the bigger stuff should stay on me fairly well with the mini gauntlet effect brutes get.

    I know I could just play them all, I'm sure they're all fairly good. I'm just asking, if you could pick only one of the 3 for a pretty strong all-round character that really shines with some decent IO investment in it, which would you pick?
  25. Ocasta

    Worst Mobs Ever.

    POST-ACTION

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macskull View Post
    The only "difficult" NPC group in this game is Vanguard. They only appear in a few arcs, yet you don't exactly see people jumping over each other to run those arcs - they're equipped with a large variety of powers designed to nullify pretty much anything, and they can give even the strongest Tankers problems sometimes (plus they have some nasty, persistent debuffs, which require purchasing temp powers to remove). Every other group - high-level CoT, Carnies, Malta - is easily countered by intelligent playing and good inspiration management.
    For the most part, I would agree, but on my MM, I don't.

    Smart inspiration use doesn't apply as much to them, it's mostly just using break frees when needed. I rarely found the issue to be me dying, it's always the pets dying, and feeding them purples to they survive is just not realistic.

    The issue for me was, especially against Malta, if a single gunslinger teleports in and shoots an aoe at my bots, well they're dead. If a zeus shoots at my bots, well they're dead. Now the zeus I can keep taunted on me, but the gunslingers I can't, they'll just teleport around. I'd love to know how to counter all my bots getting killed by just one aoe, especially considering how incredibly crappy the pet AI is.