Person34

Yeah it was only available on SoAs I believe (omega and alpha), I hadn't tried it on a spider but I have costumes saved still that have the old alpha and omega on my NW.

Best way to describe omega's look was it had the features of the smoldering aura, but also had a "splash" effect like the volcanic aura --> but the splash is semi-transparent. The splash also reacts to movement, so turning your character or running makes the second effect flare up somewhat. It's hard to explain really, but I do know that the dark purple color chosen by the person in the screens do not do the aura justice at all: red was IMO the most dynamic choice, as the splash effect was orange and yellow in color.

Alpha on a NW was also crazy looking, it made the toon look like they were silouetted against a laser light show or something. Too bad the two were removed because they were interesting auras.

I didn't see it listed, but under "How can I protect myself from Toxic Damage?" you could add ice armor's T9 for stalkers as well: it adds +37.5% toxic resistance for 30 seconds unslotted.

Slotted + hoarfrost's 15% + the pvp resist unique and stalkers can almost cap thier toxic resists for 30 seconds at a time at 74% (you might not even need the resist unique; I can't remember if hoarfrost can be slotted for resists as well).

Good writeup BTW!

I can't remember where it was posted but the devs just recently announced stalkers will be geting TWs and also mentioned that they were a little surprised at the outrage over stalkers not getting access to it... which is funny because all of TW screenshots posted hinted that stalkers -were- getting it.

With all of that killer AE goodness (T9 arc of destruction!), follow through and the new Assassin's Focus changes coming up I se it being a monster of a set for stalkers.

Edit: found the link -> http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=279218

"They're looking into porting Titan Weapons to stalkers down the line, as it would need new animations. They were surprised by the disappointment regarding it not being on stalkers."

Looks like something may be changing with the SoA set. The Superior set's proc is still "-dmg and chance for terrorize", but the lesser set's text has changed to "chance of -dmg and toxic DoT".

I hope it's the latter, as a toxic DoT would be much more useful for us, rather than a mag 2 terrorize who's recipient will most likely get one-shotted with the same attack that triggers it.

Also, as of now both sets are unique and you can only have one of either slotted (either the lesser or superior, not both). Will be interested to see if that changes.

I think I enjoy the game for reasons opposite of yours: it's a mind-numbingly easy game to play with little challenge where the top end "gear" (as in PvP and purple IOs) is all tradable and completely obtainable by anyone with the funds (or merits). You can then run a few iTrials and unlock T1 incarnate powers and be ungodly (or is that "godly") stupid powerful. Get in over my head? I have a full tray of insps and an host of temp/accolade powers to turn the tide. And with IOs and incarnates, even AVs are a bit of a joke now: I had a +1 Synapse arrive at the end of a PI mish a week ago, who was a bit of a pushover (and this was playing a NW, which is not the most durable of critters).

Yeah, sounds a little like I'm ranting but seriously no other game I've played is like this... just log on and kill. And setup time is pretty much non existant, I can log in a toon and in 15-20 minutes complete multiple paper missions. Then I just log off and go on with my day's other activities. In the other game I play, Everquest, it sometimes takes 20 minutes just to get to a zone, and once I arrive trash mobs can kill you before you can blink... here I can be surrounded by mobs attacking me and go AFK without worry.

It's the simplicity of the game that keeps me interested.

For those who haven't seen this yet. There are AT-specific IO sets in the database that have not gone live. In case you haven't seen the SoA sets (there are two, one "regular" and one "superior") it is called "Dominion of Arachnos". They can be slotted into any attack.

The regular set's bonuses are +7% acc/health +1.88%/dmg 3%/+ 8.75% rech/ +toxic and psi resist +2.21%.

The superior set has the same bonuses at a greater value: +15%/3%/4%/10%/2.52%.

They also share the same proc, chance for -dmg and terrorize. The regular set is fixed at triggering roughly 4 times per minute, the superior set at 5 per minute. Both have a 10 second duration with the fear being mag 2 and the -dmg at 7.5%. Since these can be slotted into any attack it would be interesting to have both procs (if allowed) to be placed in something like spin maybe. I was hoping for a chance for toxic damage personally, since for me that is kind of the theme of the AT.

BTW I think these will be only available through the marketplace, but not 100% on that.

There were quite a few sets posted originally: tanker, blaster, brute, dominator, and corruptor that I can recall. The stalker set has a proc that activates hidden status supposedly, the brute's increases fury generation and the scrapper set increases crit %.

Regardless of what new powersets come out or what gets ported over to other ATs, I always migrate back to my night widow. It just fits my playstyle: turn on its fullproof status protection + leadership toggles, hit mind link every 90 seconds and kill whatever is in your path... which is probably my attraction to the AT. It's just stupid easy to play and completely straight forward.

The combo I'm using on my StJ/Ice is BU + AS + shin breaker (that has an -res proc in it plus builds to combo lvl 3), and then either placate + lvl 3 CU (if I need a massive burst) or one of the finnishing AEs. Yeah, having BU or placate adding +1 to the combo would have been nice, but I'm happy with it as is. Overall I think StJ is a pretty stellar set for stalkers, even with rib cracker missing from the picture.

And yes, CU does crit after a placate, and it crits hard. I have mine slotted with the purple melee and hold procs, and when both fire on a lvl 3 combo crit it's not uncommon to see 1700+ damage. It out performs AS by a good bit, this is one of those sets where having controlled crits is nice as hell.

The tweaks you mentioned would be nice, but again I'm happy with how the set turned out for stalkers.

Thanks Robo_Knight, and yes I agree Gavin: chance of hidden status would rock, while chance of stealth would say to me "I guess the devs agree that this is suppost to be a hit and run AT...".

I just got my DP/Poison to 50, and there is a lot of synergy between the sets. I think it is mostly due to both the T9's being up close and personal though: lead off with weaken, waltz in and have venomous gas further debuff the mob's tohit and damage. Envenom, soul drain and HoB, move onto the next spawn.

So for DP anyway, poison works fine. I think in order for the set to be at its maximum potential venomous gas needs to be used offensively, which may not be something folks consider doing with BR's ranged T9.

Overall, I'm liking /poison but again it probably meshes a lot more with the primary I picked over BR: if you are not wading into melee range to put the T9 debuff to use then half the set is wasted I think.

I'm not sure how it plays on the other ATs, but it is a great set for stalkers. The cone + AE give it a little more flexibility than the other stalker sets, and a combo 3 CU crit hits like a dinosaur-killing meteorite: we're talking harder-hitting than assassin's strike.

It's a solid set with nice animations, my only gripe is that all the attacks are so spammable that if you aren't careful your endurance bar literally evaporates. I'm enjoying it while I can, as I'm sure it will be shelved soon as Titan Weapons and Staff Fighting are released...