Oedipus_Tex
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
what kind of changes would you recommend for Sonic? Aside from the repel toggle...I thought the set worked rather nicely. Help capping resistances is good too
Though maybe changing the debuff toggle might be nice, like instead of having to be on a ally, you could attach it to a enemy as a alternative.
Sonic is what I would call a "secondary buffer." It's not so bad it's unplayable, but I would never, ever, trust Sonic Resonance to keep a team alive like most of the other buff-debuff sets can on their own. Maybe if I was on a team that already had another buff character it's not awful. IMO my 2 Sonic Resonance characters (Defender and Controller) are probably the two weakest support characters I've got, at least among this list of characters in their 40s - 50s:
Ice/Therm Controller
Earth/Storm Controller
Earth/Therm Controller
Force Field/Ice Defender
Mind/Cold Controller
Elec/Force Field Controller
Sonic/Dark Defender
Dark/Pistols Corruptor
Fire/Sonic Controller
Ice/Radiation Controller
Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller -
For me probably some of the stuff in the Shadow Shard Task Forces. Defeat all Rularuu in cave. Do it again on the same map. Now again. Now grab 2 glowies at the same time. Now 4! 4 again! OMG it's 6 AM...
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I would wait to see the content. A couple of those combos are no doubt on the developer's hit list and if I were creating top level encounters I'd be looking for discreet ways to subvert them.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
/rad and /kin are the premier sets for any controller and they work here as well.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Fulmens
... I note that people are continuing to make the "at level 50" assumptions.
Who would you rather bring to a Sister Psyche?
The one I could find.
But personally I run 10 radio missions for every task force. I have several Cold, Thermal, Sonic Res, and Force Field characters. None of them are really the best. Sonic Resonance is most definitely my least favorite of the 4, though, and IMO deserves much bigger changes than Force Field does. At least I can bring a Force Fielder out and people stop dying. I have no such guarantee with Sonic.
EDIT: Make this a raid, and it's Force Field (or Traps) all the way. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Arbegla
Cold is the red-headed step child of storm and FF. It may do what power sets can do, but it really doesn't need a nerf to put it in line with either one of those.
Storm is just fine the way it is. Its all about controlled chaos, and storm does that really well.
Force field on the other hand, is really just a 1 trick pony. The times KB would matter more then just slowing the mob to a crawl is few and far between. a KB'ed mob can still fire off attacks, I've seen it happen before, they get up, fire, fall back down. a slowed down mob, just can't recharge it fast enough.
While force bubble is about 150% better then repulsion field, both of them cost ALOT of endurance to run effectively, and FF has no means to get any extra end back, aside from relying on something to help with the blue bar. Cold has a massive end drain, and a massive recovery boost power, that can be up about every spawn, and in some cases even replace stamina in some builds.
Force Field needs a buff, some form of defense debuff resistance atlest. Throw it into dispersion bubble, so its better then the Force Field Generator from traps, as that really puts dispersion bubble to shame. No needs to adjust the numbers, just put like a enhanceable 20% defense debuff resistance value on it, with 3 or so def IOs you looking at like 30% maybe 40% DDR? thats still less then a /shield gets, and would help alot in situations where Defense debuff can cause cascading failures.
Force Bubble is one of those powers that, to the people who originally wrote it, must have seemed like it would be beyond amazing. It's interesting how the way the game world works and the types of encounters we run into have made it widely considered a skippable Tier 9. -
The more I read the more I wonder if Cold doesn't just need a nerf to slap it back into line. The other obvious set to compare it to (IMO more obvious than FF) is Storm Summoning, and it doesn't make that set look too hot either.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Gargoyle_KDR
Question: What protection (+DEF, +RES, other, etc.) can the Cold provide itself? Specific values would be useful in the answer (say for a level 50).
I know what a FF can provide itself both with it's own powers and when Leadership and/or other power pools are included. My FF'er runs at 46.6% defense to range, 46.9% to Energy and Negative, and 32.4% to everything else without the use of PFF. And then there's the 47% resistance to S/L that he brings himself.
I ask about the self protection because if the FF or Cold gets dropped then there is the whole "what protection is still available to the team" situation.
- B.
I have a FF/Ice build that's either soft capped or within 1% of it to Smash, Lethal, Energy, Negative, Psionic, Melee, Ranged, and AoE. His lowest defenses are Fire and Cold at 42% each. Mezz protection keeps these values from switching off. He drops Blaster-level Blizzards and Ice Storms and can Freeze Ray anything that might have wanted to cause trouble. Courtesy of the new PPPs, he also has an AoE immobilize combined with Force Bubble to pretty much keep anything that wanted to hurt him from getting in his face.
Force Field is not perfect, but Castle is going to have to tread lightly if he decides to buff it. IMO defense debuff resistance would be a good start (I understand the original reason it wasn't provided but think that reason no longer applies in today's game), and making the knockback somewhat less redundant. -
Quote:Originally Posted by HelicopterCat
Don't agree with your implication but that is pretty funny. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Rockmar
Put simply, its okay to compare Cold to FF and not Dominators, because FF and Cold are two powersets within an AT (well, two) and Dominators are a completely different AT. And dominators get sleet. With a longer recharge. With a lower debuff modifier. I am sorry, but sleet is not enough to nullify the entire powerset.
And not only is it possible to make the rest of the defense up somewhere, its what happens the majority of the time. Very rarely am I on a team that has only one source of defense for either team or an individual player.
All versions of Sleet (Controller, Defender, Corruptor, Dominator) are identical. The only difference is the Dominator version recharges in 90 seconds and the rest in 60.
I just think what's good for the goose is good for the gander and all that. If we're going to compare power sets like this it's fair game to call out all instances of overlap. Force Field and Cold Dom do overlap to some extent, but so do lots of things. I do think Force Field could use some buffs but disagree that it is in terrible shape. -
Quote:Originally Posted by HelicopterCat
I'm pretty sure he's assuming the person playing the cold isn't wearing a special helmet while they smash their head against their reinforced keyboard, because really that's the only way that the FF is going to be more useful.
Apparently you've never joined a PUG. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Rockmar
While I agree that sonic needs to be looked at as well, I find your statement about colds not being useful in teams except for AVs a little ridiculous. Its not as much defense as FF, but its a good 40% or so, and it has stealth, and +HP, -DMG, Knockdown, and its not like the -resists are wasted on non AVs.
I love Cold Domination but I will stand by what I said about desiring it less than a Dominator for dealing with large groups of enemies. The Dominator is simply much better at dealing with the group than the Cold is, in general, and provides the same AoE -Resistance. Why do you feel its ok to compare Cold to FF but not Cold to Dominators, who also have power overlaps?
In terms of Cold v FF, 40% defense (which is actually not the real number, but whatever) is HALF of 45% defense. It is possible to make the rest of up elsewhere, but monitoring the numbers in my window, which I do obsessively, has shown that it is rare for the soft cap to be hit on typical PUGs I run. Rather than chance it I'd usually rather just have a Force Field. I'd say 98% of my time spent playing is outside so-called "end game" content and Force Field performs very nicely there. If you team only with lvl 50 Shield Scrappers or something your experience may be different. -
I have both Cold and FF (and Sonic) characters. Which one is "better" depends on the situation.
It is true that you can build a team in a way that makes FF less useful. It is not true that an average team is built that way. This is why Force Field is my top pick for running PUGs. It is guaranteed, 95% defense, no matter who joins or leaves the team. The endurance drain protection is very useful against certain enemy groups as well.
Task Forces are a little different. I prefer Cold for final boss fights in general. I find Cold much less useful for the rest of the mission. Sleet is very powerful but now that Dominators can get it I find the rest of Cold not very appealing. Dominators are simply much better at handling large spawns.
When I rolled my Electric Controller I selected Force Field so I could have mezz protection and the ability to IO myself to make it safer to leap into melee with Conductive Aura. The team are not the only people who benefit from the set.
The set that's not being mentioned here that IMO deserves much more scrutiny is Sonic Resonance. Like FF and Cold I have two characters with this set. I find it to be extremely lackluster. People looking only at "variety" or "debuffs" are probably going to disagree, because they enter on the assumption that every team is already invincible. -
On my stealthy characters I use Combat Stats to see what my current stealth level is.
Rules of thumb on suppression:
* AoE Stealth Aura (Steamy Mists, Arctic Fog, Dark Fall) - Never suppresses
* Improved Invisibility, Stealth, Invisibility, Grant Invisibility - Only defense suppresses, stealth does not, when you attack (a little less sure about this one so someone may need to confirm)
* Super Speed - Stealth suppresses when you attack
* Stealth IO - Stealth suppresses when you attack OR get hit by an attack/take damage. (e.g. those red crystals that do damage in CoT maps will unhide you)
Note that you can still "have" stealth but be attacked. If you use any notifying power on an enemy in a group, all enemies in that group can retaliate even if you are technically still hidden. The stealth/invisibility will still allow you to run past or get near groups that haven't seen you yet though, as long as you don't attack them. -
Anything works really depending on what you're trying to get done. You're likely to hear a lot of votes for Illusion/Radiation, which is a really good combo, but IMO other combos are very good too and somewhat underrated. Not being able to buff your army pets may or may not be an issue depending on whether you do a lot of stuff solo. Recent tweaks to the game have made it so that just about any combo can get perma-Army now, and laying your hands on Luck of the Gambler +recharge IOs is much more doable thanks to morality missions.
Speaking about solo performance, Illusion/Rad and Illusion/Cold tend to be among the top performers, with Illusion/Storm well up there. Illusion/Kin is perennially popular. If you're going to pay for IOs, its my experience Cold benefits much more than Radiation or Kinetics although none is really "the best." Trick Arrow also makes up for several of the holes in Illusion and benefits rather dramatically from the +Recharge necessary to keep Phantom Army active.
The "buffier" sets like Empathy, Force Field, Thermal, etc are also not bad choices. Your army won't benefit but your team will. This game's powers powers developer, Castle, has said that he plays an Illusion/Empathy Controller and finds the combo very powerful. Your mileage may vary depending on what you expect to get out of the combo. -
I always think of it like this:
Mag 2 - Minion
Mag 3 - Leiut
Mag 4 - Boss
Typical single target holds are always base Mag 3, with very few exceptions, so they normally hold a Minion or Lt instantly and a Boss with 2 applications. This is the case unless the creature has some kind of status protection, in which case it may be harder to mezz them.
(Now, technically you don't need Mag 4 to hit a boss, you need anything greater than 3. The Mind Control power Mesmerize is Mag 3.5 and will sleep a boss instantly. I'm not sure if any other powers have a fraction of a Magnitude.)
Folks above mentioned the procs you can add to get a chance for higher mag. While you typically cannot enhance hold mag directly, what you can do is enhance recharge and hold duration to make it easier to stack.
Archvillains and elite bosses are a little trickier. Some of them have what are called "purple triangles (because of the ambient buff graphic) that grants them +50 status protection or some such. Basically enough that when the triangles are "up" holding them with a Corruptor is probably not possible. When the triangles go "down" you may be able to do it, however. -
Doesn't Domination normally not work on PBAoEs (e.g. Arctic Air, Mud Pots)? (Although strangely Mids reports WoC used by a Dominator gets a chance for extra Mag like a Controller would).
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I don't really like the idea of a Tier 5. A second tier 2 (like the APPs and PPPs have) would be fine with me.
Has this ideal for Concealment:
False Alert - Draws enemy's attention to the general area of your current location, without revealing your exact hiding spot. This often results in enemies moving toward you and/or wasting attacks on your assumed position, although area attacks may still create problems for you. (Mechanics: Drops an invisible pet in your current location. The pet has a Taunt aura with a radius of 20 ft. The pet lasts 5 seconds before vanishing. This power does not cause aggro.) -
Quote:Originally Posted by SinisterDirge
As for the topic, to my understanding, cold brings everything a bubbler does to the team and more.
No not really.
Please see the discussion here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=238186 And also, pray it doesn't spill onto this board too. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Smoking Baby
Why does every thread on a defender/corruptor set have to turn into a childish flame war full of personal insults because someone said something less than positive about powers in a video game?
That axe swings both ways. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Captain_Freak
same can be said about everyone on this board especially you, and has been said. Welcome to the internet.
Unlike you forum jockeys, ive been playing and teaming with people that arent my friends for quite some time. Ive seen the BS the Devs and puggers pull all the time (devs with the game as a whole, the puggers in the game itself)
I can tell you hands down that Empathy is a terrible set compared to everything else. One AB isnt the end all and be all. But you posters act like it is. 3 forts barely make a team, at that level anything will serve you. EVEN 4 people spamming aoe immob. Man builds. O2 boost. And you have the audacity to think that Empathy is 'teh gr34t3st ting eva'?
Plskthnxbai.
So, for the short sighted, need h34lz crowd....Rad/dark/storm>cold/ta/>either bubbles/ traps>inspirations>a sharp stick in the eye>heavy drinking> Lamepathy played well/lolpaindom> Lamepathy/lolpaindom played by 99% of the user base including the devs who made the set
Thats the rating system. You can disagree but youd simply be wrong......well maybe drinking would be better than a sharp stick in the eye.....
No. -
Well if we want to make a real case about any of the powers not making sense, we at least have to mention that we can summon a Blizzard-Ice Rain-Sleet-Fire Rain-Inferno-Tornado-Earthquake-Glacier-Static Field, and stand in the middle of it to no ill effect. We can also shoot projectiles through a crowd and unfailingly never accidentally hit any targets except the person we're aiming at. Although in the end I'm ok with all of this, because I've never viewed the game as "real life" but rather as something you might see in a comic book, where people do indeed outrun explosions and survive impossible odds.
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I will third the opinion that you will enjoy a Gravity/Energy Dominator a lot more. It's also got a lot of tools to make Gravity not quuuite so frustrating (but still not as strong, IMO, as the other control sets).
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Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
Thats actually an outstanding suggestion. I would go with one Fire/Psi and one Earth/Psi so that you can stack your AOE Stun powers if you need to. Good times!
Lewis
Actually on Dominators you shouldn't need to do this that often... although if you ever wanted to see what happens when you gun rush a pack of +3 Arachnos and still win this is a perfect combo to try it (LOL at combined mag 12 AoE stuns.. won't that stun an elite boss too?!) -
Keep in mind that Piercing Rounds does have -Resistance (I think only when fired with Lethal bullets).
