Oedipus_Tex
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Posts
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Quote:Originally Posted by Starsman
You will have to simply convince the devs to either ignore aesthetics and allow weapons to litterally flash out of nowhere (and remember, they dont even do it for elemental weapons,) or convince them to make faster versions of the Bow Draw animation.]
Actually, BABs didn't seem to need convincing when he wrote back in Dec 2009:
"I've actually looked at getting rid of weapon draw entirely, but even that is problematic. The system is very inflexible as far as different combat modes goes."
Then came this:
"Good news everyone, I think I have figured out a way to bypass weapon redraw in combat. I've tested it with with various non-weapon powers or weapon powers from completely different sets, and it seems to work out. This means that you will be able to use any power in a chain with a weapon power, and not have to redraw the weapon...even completely different weapon powers. It will just instantly appear in your hand and play the attack animation. If you're not in combat, out of range, or have no target selected...then it will play a non-rooted, interruptible version of the weapon draw animations."
And finally, unfortunately, this:
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to retract yesterday's statement. I've run into a roadblock with Shields that's going to prevent this method from working. At this point I'm going to have to explore a code solution to the problem, but I can't say when or if that will happen."
And that was that. But in any case for a period of about 20 hours some of us believed that weapons would appear in character's hands just as suddenly as they currently disappear.
Original thread here for context: http://coh103.gtm.cityofheroes.com/s...d.php?t=200797 -
This is definitely doable in the wake of Lore pets. In certain very specific situations I'd actually give Thermal higher marks than Cold or Radiation because it can possibly keep the Lore pet alive longer and directly boost its attack strength.
[Note that some people don't count Lore pets as having "soloed" but IMO this is kind of a silly distinction, since they don't count any other incarnate powers against you.] -
Your build is a bit different than how I might have done it. Here are my nitpicks:
- IMO the APP version of Consume is pretty awful. In any case, it needs Accuracy slotting and possibly Endurance Mod as well if you keep it. If you stay with the Fire APP I would definitely drop Consume for Fire Blast.
- It appears you skipped your single target blast. I personally wouldn't, but if you do, you might consider a switch the Mu pool. This give you Power Sink, which is a much better endurance tool than Consume, and is auto-hit. You could also then choose to play with the Surge of Power godmode or pick up the pet, which rumor has it is one of the better ones (it has a heal). Doing this would let you drop Cardiac entirely if you wanted for Spiritual, which in turn lets you get the pet perma. Note that to do this you will have to at least temporarily turn villain.
- Just as an IMO, the number of travel power picks could be toned down for a lot of affect. Speaking purely for myself, I tend to think that Controllers typically make poor candidates for powers like Long Range Teleport compared to many other ATs because their power lists are already packed with exotic power picks. If you just can't live without LTR stay with it, but I would personally consider it splurging at the expense of the build.
- Regeneration does little for Controllers in the amounts available.
- Without a single target blast IMO you really want at least Ring of Fire.
A sample build with these mods and a few other changes appears below. I picked up 22% Ranged defense, which isn't a lot but not completely awful either. With more latitude I could probably come up with slightly better numbers. The APP Guardian is down for only 9 seconds assuming it stays alive, and you can Power Sink about every 35 seconds to restore your endurance.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Badge Hunter Incarnate: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5), Dmg-I(5), HO:Perox(7)
Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Fire Cages -- TotHntr-Dam%(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(7), Posi-Dam%(9), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(9), GravAnch-Hold%(11)
Level 4: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 8: Hot Feet -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(17), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(19), TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(21), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(21)
Level 10: Ring of Fire -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 12: Flashfire -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(23), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(25), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(25), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(27)
Level 14: Snow Storm -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- RechRdx-I(A), Achilles-ResDeb%(31), RechRdx-I(31), Posi-Dam%(45)
Level 18: Cinders -- UbrkCons-Hold(A), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(31), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(33), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(33), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(33)
Level 20: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(34), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(34), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(36)
Level 22: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29)
Level 24: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(27), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(46)
Level 26: Recall Friend -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(34)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(36), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(37), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(37), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(37)
Level 30: O2 Boost -- Heal-I(A)
Level 32: Fire Imps -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(A), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(39), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(40), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Tornado -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(40), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(42), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(42)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45)
Level 41: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(45)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dam%(48)
Level 47: Charged Armor -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A)
Level 49: Summon Guardian -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(50), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(50)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon
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Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(13), EndMod-I(15)
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Quote:Originally Posted by rsclark
Actually, ninja or merc or necro/FF gets next to nothing from recharge. Of those, necro does the best, but it's still basically nothing.
Maybe, but... when I see all those defense powers in Force Field, I can't help but imagine them eventually filled with LoTGs.
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Quote:Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
I didn't need it because I was able to get MA's optimal attack chain down to a one frame gap or so without it. Doing this on a MA/DA is so ludicrously endurance draining that without conserve power and cardiac my only recourse was ageless, which only just keeps me from bottoming out in a protracted single target scenario. So in addition to being unnecessary, hasten would cause my build to be unsustainable. I'd also have had to have skipped an additional power to take it and the only thing I could drop without either losing the s/l softcap or the fluidity of my chain was oppressive gloom. I almost never use OG but it's great to have for MA/DA because you can so easily stack stun mag on bosses that you don't want firing a specific power.
So, that's an approximation of my thought process during the building process, right down to the rambliness of it.
I see what you're saying, although you're talking about a single target attack chain, and not how fast the heal, MA's lonely AoE, Focus Chi and other such things recharge. I probably bit off more than I can chew when including the armored classes in my statement, although even on them +70% Recharge is IMO really hard to pass up. Especially since that +70% stays +70% for 2 minutes at a time when you exemplar. Like I said, I'd certainly never skip it unless I was playing something really odd.
P.S. In case it's not clear from context, I'm talking only about skipping Hasten. I run about 50/50 on Cardiac vs Spiritual and about one half of my incarnate build plans, if not actual characters, use Ageless Destiny +Rec/+End. -
Very few builds "need" Recharge but finding one that doesn't "benefit" is IMO very difficult. TBH post inherent Stamina I can't think of a high end build that could skip Hasten and actually end up better for it unless the person just hates the Hasten graphic or animation time or something. I'm not saying there aren't builds that don't have it, but I would certainly never skip it, may the ugly graphics be damned.
If I were forced to name something... maybe something completely random like Psi Blast/Sonic Resonance/Electric Corruptor who doesn't care about Liquefy and lacks (because of the blast set) Aim. But even there you're potentially throwing AoEs a little slower even despite the long animation times on them. -
This pack sets a new standard for quality. I love it. And IMO it is perfectly priced at 400 points.
Frankly, between this, Barbarian, and Steampunk, the quality of the average player costume I see in game has increased tremendously. What I really love about all three of those packs is that they contain many pieces that are useful across a variety of possible characters and are just strange enough to really make an impact.
The only thing I'm not really crazy about is the normal mapped faces and a few parts that don't retint completely. Even with those aspects though I still love it.
Huge kudos BTW to whoever animated the bat aura. It looks so good that IMO it could be the basis for an entire "Avian Control" set. With the ability to recolor the "birds" and maybe choose between insects or birds it would really be an awesome looking "Hold" or "Slow" power. -
Nitpick: I would disagree about not slotting Confusion in AA. IMO you want the Confusion in this power to last as long as possible as that significantly increases survivability.
At normal levels I slot the power with two endurance enhancers, and two confusion enhancers. Note that you can sometimes buy already crafted Confusion IOs dirt cheap. I've occasionally bought them for 5 influence when I've been lucky. Very few people will be looking for Confusion/Endurance IOs specifically so you can frankenslot several set's worth. Do not focus on Accuracy IOs in AA because it is autohit.
My usual slotting at 50 is either x5 Coercive Persuasion + 1 Endurance IO, or, on Ranged defense builds with endurance recovery supported by Incarnate powers, x6 Coercive Persuasion. Even if you don't go full bore with the purples, the purple proc is a must have--as in the most important slot in your build. You should never bypass Contagious Confusion in AA. And the best part about that is that it still works when you exemplar. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Nihilii
If my minimum threshold for playing something is a 3, and if something that used to be a 1 became a 2, the improvement is meaningless to me, it's still too weak - and, to paraphrase someone else's argument, I could say it's actually detrimental as that it was buffed once reduces the chance it'll be buffed again.
Drawing (and not even sheating) your sword 50 times per fight does not look good. It looks silly. I'm willing to accept people flying, throwing fireballs or getting superpowers from radiation poisoning but I have to come up with seriously contrived scenarios to explain Fighter McNotMagicDude's sword mysteriously vanishing in air everytime he uses his healing abilities derived from his mutant lineage.
To deride the issue as a minmax-centric one is a misconstruction, unless you define anyone who picks Hasten or mix and match SOs to not go over the ED cap as minmaxing, which, while technically true, is essentially meaningless as this concerns the vast majority of the game's population. Redraw is enough of a problem that it falls into that same threshold of minmaxing ; nobody needs to be a number cruncher to realise it's a pain in the *** to be still in the middle of that Headsplitter animation after popping Recon while the targeted lieut is defeated by SuperBrutorz666 with a well placed Knockout Blow.
What looking at numbers show, however, is that despite this gameplay disadvantage, weapons don't really get a significant numerical advantage for it. Even in theorycraft spreadsheet ST DPS weapon sets tend to be at the bottom of the pole, and only tend to have good AoE in fantasy scenarios assuming the player hits close to the target cap each and everytime without spending even a second positioning himself.
What's my suggestion to improve it? As others said, just get rid of it. There's no sheathing, so why should there be drawing? Or bake it into the power like Fire or Stone melee. There would probably be customisation issues, yadda yadda. Truth be told, I couldn't care less - I'm with Deus on this, I just avoid these sets like the plague ; unless I'm deliberately trying something different than I know won't be a serious concept character nor win any awards for performance.
You pretty much summed up everything I was going to write in response, especially RE: the min-max issue. IMO it is not min-maxing to want powers to function in certain ways. Someone has to draw a line somewhere on their function. I'm not very concerned with DPS, and am much more irked that redraw pushes perverse strategies. For example, the strategy for my Pistols/Empathy Corruptor [EDIT: Oops, Defender] is to the toe the line on health because healing myself or someone else makes me put my pistols away which I need in order to defend myself or use a hold. Using a weapon set with any buff/debuff set with a fast recharging heal just really underlines how silly redraw can get. The "strategy" is not intentional and is just an artifact of a very poorly design weapon mechanic. I'm not attacking any developers over this, because I'm sure this is just one of those things that ended up this way "just because," but it is an unfortunate state of affairs, which is why this topic comes up every couple of days.
And, like you, I avoid weapon sets these days. They're just too irritating to me compared to the smooth gameplay of non-weapon sets. -
It's impossible to know how the developers feel about the current set of affairs, except that at one time Back Alley Brawler attempted to fix the current version. So it really is not a choice between the old slow animations and the current re-draw system. There are other options, and we would already have something different if the first attempt to fix the current system had worked.
In any case this isn't just a question of "DPS." The set that drives me insane with redraw is Trick Arrow. That isn't a DPS issue, its a PITA one where your bwo disappears constantly if you are one of those Defenders or Corruptors who mixes in attacks. -
Quote:Originally Posted by _Ail_
Yes, they should animate sheathing a weapon as well.
No. No, no, no, no they should not.
No.
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Quote:Originally Posted by _Ail_
But don't you think if you do put away and redraw your weapon 100 times it should take time to do that?
That is what I am arguing here.
I think that no one intends to put away their weapon when they use powers from their secondary. The game just forces them to do it because that aspect of it is poorly designed.
I'm just calling that like I see it. Redraw is only there because of an unnecessary "draw weapon" animation that serves no purpose other than to be cute and is ridiculous in the context of the fact that the weapon is never put back in it is sheathe. The character just keeps redrawing a disappearing sword or gun that for some reason takes time to pull out but not to put away. There is no logical defense of this system based on anything resembling reality, so no, in fact I don't think it should take time to draw the weapon again, because the fact that a particular animation doesn't specifically animate it in my hands doesn't mean I actually put it away. -
Quote:Originally Posted by _Ail_
There SHOULD be a penalty conceptually anyway each time you draw your sword, so having there be one in game is no problem.
I completely disagree with you. IMO putting away and redrawing your weapon 50 to 100 times during a fight just doesn't make a lot of sense.
The thing that especially bothers me about all of this is that the entire issue could be avoided by killing the cutsie "weapon draw" animation or having it animate in just one frame. The animation is completely unnecessary and in fact IMO looks ridiculous when it is played over and over and over and over during a fight. Note that there is no "sheathe weapon" animation at all--it just vanishes when you use the next non-weapon power, and no one seems upset about that. -
Almost every time I have died to one of the death patch powers its because there is something about the game/the way my controls are set up that occasionally causes my character to run 180 degrees in the opposite direction I intend after firing a shot. Specifically, it sometimes happens if I press the run key too soon during an attack animation. Backward becomes forward and the character runs straight into the path of what I was trying to avoid. It's especially noticeable in fights with death patches because I sometimes panic and start hitting the key during the middle of an animation in hopes of moving immediately, and the character ends up shooting off in the wrong direction. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what causes it but I experience a lot as hitting the S key to retreat backward and end up running toward whatever I was trying to avoid.
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Thanks for the props on the build.
As of issue 21 I have actually changed the build to incorporate Spring Attack. I'm not sure I'm completely sold on it versus Aid Self. However, it let me soft cap Ranged without using a PVP IO.
The loss of Fire Breath has turned out to be pretty meh. I just try not to exemp a lot with this character.
What's also not showing in this build are the IO enhancers I bought. I enhanced Ice Slick, Stamina, one slot in Hasten, and Embrace of Fire by +5 to make them a bit better. Doing that costs real life cash though, so you may want to back off on going on it full-bore. The build overall does a LOT more damage than it used to. Embrace of Fire is up constantly and while the character isn't the AoE powerhouse some others might be, he definitely contributes a ton.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Solar Icecap: Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(15), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(17)
Level 1: Flares -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25)
Level 2: Frostbite -- GravAnch-Immob(A), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(5), GravAnch-Hold%(17), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(19), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(36)
Level 4: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 6: Arctic Air -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(7), CoPers-Conf%(7), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(11)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 10: Fire Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 12: Ice Slick -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 16: Embrace of Fire -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Super Jump -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 20: Spring Attack -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(36), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), HO:Centri(50)
Level 22: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(23), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(31), Stpfy-KB%(34), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(37), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(40)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 26: Glacier -- UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(A), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(27), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(27), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(29), UbrkCons-Hold(29)
Level 28: Consume -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(48)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(31), Ksmt-ToHit+(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(36)
Level 32: Jack Frost -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(34), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(34)
Level 35: Fire Ball -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(37), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 38: Blaze -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(40), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Rain of Fire -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 44: Rise of the Phoenix -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(45), Stpfy-KB%(45), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(46), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(46), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(46)
Level 47: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Fire Shield -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A)
Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(48)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A)
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I think it's already clear to the Arcana's of the forums, but it may be helpful to clarify that we're talking specifically about sustained average damage to a single target over a long period of time.
Technically speaking, the maximum damage possible is probably a Scrapper. That's because it is possible, but unlikely, for the Scrapper to get a critical hit on every attack. This is very unlikely in a long fight. But in a fight where two crits could kill a target, it happens about once every 100 enemies.
Corruptor Scourge is also extremely difficult to place an objective value on outside of regular fights. A lot of this is because the meaning of overkill damage is difficult to evaluate. Strictly speaking, Scourge only adds extra damage if the enemy is killed because Scourge damage contributed. This will happen any time the enemy either 1) takes some amount of Scourge damage and survives it or 2) takes some amount of normal damage and survives that, but is killed by the tacked on Scourge damage.
Sometimes the statement about Scourge above is used to show that Scourge isn't very good; in fact, what it really shows is that "damage values" themselves are not the only measurement in play. Another measurement, that doesn't get a lot of attention from what I can see, is how many animation casts it costs to down the enemy. This is roughly related to DPA but is not exactly the same thing, because DPA is a measure of a steady stream of damage. Equally as important are the whole power casts you bypass if an enemy dies before the next attack. It's also very difficult to measure because it goes completely against the idea of "attack chains"; the best power to cast on enemy that is near death is the one that kills it and sacrifices the least. In some cases this may actually mean having an additional power that is never part of your "chain" and is used strictly as an executioners button. Two kinds of powers that work exactly like this but are rarely called out as such are damage auras and high damage pets, who aren't just useful for the added damage but also for the subtracted power animation investment if used in that way.
That isn't to say that what's been measured elsewhere in this thread isn't useful information. It's just part of the picture. -
You can't play video games from jail.
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I have no experience with Fire/Ice but I have a 50 Mind/Ice and a 50 Ice/Fire.
I like both. Icy Assault does good damage overall and Power Boost is always useful to have. Fiery Assault does excellent damage and Consume is a nice addition, as is the huge damage boost from Fiery Embrace if you decide on the Fire APP.
IMO neither Fiery nor Icy really has decent built in AoE capability to speak of given that you will spend a lot of time up close and a lot of your damage comes from cones. Ice Sword Circle is at least a little better than Combustion. Most of the AoE damage comes from the APPs, from Hot Feet, or in certain contrived circumstances, from enemies hitting each other while confused by Arctic Air.
Ice Control versus Fire Control is really hard to rate. Fire Control tends to have more players and IMO its the easier choice of the two. I find that Ice Control in general has a very rough time in the 40s-50s range until it can get IOed. Once you get some defense and (especially) perma-dom up though it is fairly solid if a bit harder to play than many other Control sets. -
Another way to do this is to have the attacks be touch-based rather than weapon or punch/kick based. Dark Melee has a couple of powers that kind of have this aesthetic but it's not quite as developed a concept as I think it could be. There are a number of characters in comics with "draining touch" type powers who are not necessarily "psychic," but expressing that damage as Psi makes a lot of sense given the entities who tend to resist it (e.g. Robots).
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A small note on leveraging Ice Control solo without faceplanting: learn to make use of corners and line of sight. Ice Slick is a surprisingly good opener, especially if you intentionally don't place it directly under the whole group. Instead, drop it around a corner tagging a couple of guys somewhere in the path enemies have to take to reach you. The other enemies will come running up behind quickly, then get caught on the edge of the patch, where they all end up congregrated. They won't be able to move toward you as quickly if the guy in front of them falls over, either. Wait for a moment when a bunch of them are on their backs, then come running in.
The -Run Speed in Ice Slick is actually very useful IMO and normal enemies almost never manage to escape it. You can also do this with other slow patches but Ice Slick is especially good because the knockdown eats up a lot of time the enemy would have spent running toward you. Sometimes enemies don't make it off the slick for the entire 30 second duration. -
I skimmed the thread, so hopefully I won't be repeating too much of what was said above.
When it comes to Ice Control on Controllers I have tried a couple of different APPs and have personally never really been satisified with anything but the Psi APP. The main reason for this is the mezz protection. In my experience having mezz protection on an Ice troller is the difference between casually strolling through waves of x8 Carnies and Malta and being constantly shut down.
I also tend to build for Ranged defense for Ice Controllers instead of S/L. The reasoning is counter intuitive: in my experience it's the enemies outside your debuff radius who cause most of the trouble. And Ice/Time specifically has a -ToHit debuff ring to help take care of anything up close. It's scattered enemies that are especially dangerous.
The build below demos how I might build Ice/Time. I haven't fully vetted the build yet so there may be mistakes. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on how I slotted Chrono Shift with this build; another option would be to move some procs around from other powers to here. Yet another option is to use enhancement boosters to short change a few powers. In build below Stamina is set up for this: if you enhance the regular ISO slot (not the proc) 5 times it boosts the output of one dropped slot greatly. This costs real life money, however.
Note that this is also an end-game build that I would probably only use once I had Cardiac slotted up. Prior to having Cardiac, I might consider putting only 5 slots of Coercive Persuasion in Arctic Air, and making the final slot an endurance reducer until I worked up my End Reduction. Cardiac also boosts range, which can benefit Ice Slick, and increases your resistance, hence a benefit to switching to a resistance armor.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
David Corrie: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5), HO:Perox(5), Dmg-I(7)
Level 1: Time Crawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Temporal Mending -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal(11), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Time's Juncture -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(13), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(15), DarkWD-ToHitDeb(15)
Level 6: Arctic Air -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(7), CoPers-Conf%(19), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(19), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(21), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(21)
Level 8: Frostbite -- Posi-Dam%(A), GravAnch-Hold%(9), TotHntr-Dam%(25), ImpSwft-Dam%(25), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(27), HO:Endo(27)
Level 10: Temporal Selection -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(39), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Dct'dW-Rchg(42)
Level 12: Ice Slick -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(17)
Level 16: Distortion Field -- Lock-%Hold(A), UbrkCons-Dam%(17), NrncSD-Dam%(23), G'Wdw-Dam%(39), ImpSwft-Dam%(42)
Level 18: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 20: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(31), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(31), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(36), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(36), Stpfy-KB%(36)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 26: Glacier -- UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(A), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(33), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(34), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(34), UbrkCons-Hold(34)
Level 28: Farsight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), DefBuff-I(29), DefBuff-I(29)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(31), RedFtn-Def(33), RedFtn-EndRdx(37), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 32: Jack Frost -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(40), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(40), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(40), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 35: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RechRdx-I(43), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 38: Chrono Shift -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 41: Mental Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50)
Level 44: Psionic Tornado -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Slowed Response -- RechRdx-I(A), Acc-I(50)
Level 49: Mind Over Body -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
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Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Quote:Originally Posted by Snow Globe
I am not deciding this. The developers decided this. However, I fully support that developer choice as it means less inconvenience to me.
I understand what full well what you are saying: no one can have this feature because you might forget to turn off the option and get a message from an RMTer. It doesn't matter what the developers decided because the purpose of this thread is to discuss whether that was a good decision.
This is not in dispute. What I said is that I, the paid player, want to decide whether a free player can contact me or not. I do not want the game deciding that for me. This is NOT just about paid players not being able to send tells; it is also about my ability to receive them. As long as its like this, you and all the world will get to hear my private chats via the Help channel.Quote:To gain the privilege (it is not a right) of being able to send tells, talk in super group channel, or in broadcast a player has to earn a set amount of reward tokens (2). -
I appreciate the attempt to try something new. I'm willing to give this a shot but I'm not sure if this going to be the most effective way to do it. Just looking through what is here right now, it's mostly ATs and power sets I'm not qualified to comment on. IMO there is very little overlap between, say, a Tanker and a Defender and having them in the same forum, along with 10 or so other ATs, is a lot of distraction to deal with. Controllers and Dominators are ATs that seem very alike but have somewhat different purposes and build priorities. I fear we're going to get back into fights about this and that control set being "better" on one AT or another rather than talking about the actual AT the build was posted for.
There are a couple of reasons there isn't a storehouse of builds anyone can identify. One of the biggest is that they are constantly changing. Just this issue epic powers opened up at 35 and we got new travel powers. Prior to that we got incarnate powers proper. Prior to that, the alpha slot. Prior to that, inherent Stamina. I just don't have much worth sharing that for sure is going to still be worth reading about again in 8 months.
Another possible issue is that a person "sharing" a build implies that it is not there to be commented on, but may in fact be not very good and in need of "critique." Or it might be ultra-specific for some purpose or player. Of the people commenting on the Controller boards, we very rarely come to a complete consensus on build goals or design. And pretty much every build comes with caveats about cost, practicality, purpose, and how far the player is willing to dig into incarnate content.
I also have a couple of builds I consider good, but the number of people looking specifically for, say, Ice/Fire Dominators is so low, and the build updated so frequently, that it is IMO more economical to just respond to individual requests rather than put up a post hoping someone finds it. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Okay, here are my reasons for not wanting a menu option to let players choose to accept free player tells:
- Overly broad. It allows pure F2P all the way up to Premium Tier 8 players.
- If multiple settings are allowed, then requires more interface work would be needed.
- Slows game performance with yet another check. The current setup only requires a check at the time of sending the tell, not constantly in case a tell is received.
- Pure F2P players do not have any investment to lose for spamming.
- Global Ignore lists aren't effective in curbing RMTs.
- Global Ignore lists lump people I want to ignore in with spammers.
- Not all options are saved consistently.
- Some options are flaky and change without user interaction.
- Switching characters has the possibility to change even existing options. Try setting XP to be disabled or a hide setting then switching characters, sometimes the option "sticks".
None of these reasons is compelling enough to me to abandon my hope that I will be able to decide who is able to communicate with me. I certainly don't want *you* deciding that because you can't handle it, I can't either, and we pay the same monthly fee. In fact I find the idea of you being "against" paid players deciding who they receive tells from almost offensive. - Overly broad. It allows pure F2P all the way up to Premium Tier 8 players.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Most people in this thread are not talking about Premium access to global chat channels. They are talking about players unwilling to put out $5. Guess what? they are getting exactly what they are paying for.
I cannot speak for everyone else who posted, but I personally am not talking about people who aren't paying. I'm talking about me, who pays, and is prevented from receiving tells from free players. I did not have a choice in the matter and there is no amount of money I can pay to fix it. While I do pay to play the game "as is" sometimes the way it is isn't what I'd hope for.
[The OP indeed is talking about the $45 mark and not the $5 altho to me they are similar issues, if not necessarily to the OP or other people.]