Q_Arkhan

[ QUOTE ]
Once again, for no particular reason:

Fully slotted frozen or rock armor (44% smash/lethal defence), used to give 88% defence to an attack that did both smash and lethal damage (the only one I can think of is the old 5th valkyrie rockets, but there are others). Now it gives 44% defence, just as it would to a baseball bat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, we agree. It did and now it doesn't. It was never supposed to, per the DEVS. It was only a HUGE benefit after Stacking armors, although I'm sure it helped some before.

If that's not sufficient DEF (and it certainly doesn't look like it to me), let the devs know. Maybe you'll get some RES outta the deal. I won't deny that compared to INVULN, Ice seems to get shafted pretty hard and this "fix" makes things worse in the shafted department.

[ QUOTE ]
The method of the "fix" for the dark scrappers was never discussed in terms of how it would effect other classes, at least to my knowledge. If it was, and I missed it, please post a SPECIFIC link to the SPECIFIC post discussing it. Do NOT simply point to thread on the scrapper board talking about the issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't provide a quote, but as info, here are two links

Link
Link2

In neither thread do the DEVS comment about ICE, but plenty of players made the same points you did at the time. The Devs never responded directly to them at that time.

Geko did, here, today.

If you feel ICE needs lovin', say so and let the DEVS know. If it does, it will likely get the lovin.

That lovin' shouldn't come from a BUG. I can see ICE getting some +RES to go along with the DEF they already have. Wouldn't bother me a bit.

Oh, and in reference to your mystery post which got deleted somehow, I am well aware that ICE is DEF only. Any where that I mentioned DEF and RES together, in reference to stacking armors, I was talking in general about stacking armors. I believe that if you read back through a couple posts, especially the post you took your quote from, you'll see that both before and after that quote, I specifically mentioned that ICE only gets DEF.

I really don't see how you missed it, unless you were grasping for strawmen to bolster your already defeated position.

Is anyone else noticing posts disappearing from this thread??

[ QUOTE ]
The method of the "fix" for the dark scrappers was never discussed in terms of how it would effect other classes, at least to my knowledge. If it was, and I missed it, please post a SPECIFIC link to the SPECIFIC post discussing it. Do NOT simply point to thread on the scrapper board talking about the issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

On that point, which has some merit:

<some conjecture as to when DEVS found the real bug>

It was always assumed that the accuracy problems experienced with SM and ENG were problems with ACCURACY. The devs kept saying "its working as it is supposed to". We figured that meant "we meant for you to miss, you're getting split-damage types, which often means more damage/less resisted". It sucked, but it was an answer.

We should have taken the DEV response to mean "We looked at it and there is no bug in the ACCURACY code for those powers". They were right. There wasn't.

The BUG was in the DEFENSE code. The DEVS didn't FIND it (conjecture), until they noticed that ICE tankers were super hard to hit for certain badguys with split-damage attacks. They found that bug and realized that it was, in fact, the source of the "accuracy bug" people had been complaining about for months and months.

ICE didn't get the full benefit of this "bug" for very long. The timeframe between stacking armors and the "bug fix" is less than a month. ICE did benefit before stacking armors, but not to the same degree, the DEVS never noticed it and I don't remember folks talking about how UBER Ice tankers were

The fix was never discussed in relation to how it might affect ICE tankers because it was a short-term exploit. They should have put something into the release notes, IMO, or a letter from STATESMAN, explaining the situation, but they correctly implemented the fix.

If you discover missing money in your bank account and it turns out that there was a mistaken deposit a month ago which was just corrected by the bank, when the bank takes the "extra money" away, you can complain, but you aren't going to get the money back. It was never yours.

The extra DEF wasn't legitimate to begin with. Returning the DEF to its intended value isn't a "NERF", although I can see how it might feel like one to an ICE who thought "Man, these stacking armors are AWESOME!!!!".

Incorrectly too awesome, I'm afraid, in the case of ICE.

If you want to make a case to the DEVS that they should allow ICE to keep the extra DEF, adding special code for them, and FF defenders, feel free. I don't think you'll get much support, but its your perogative to make the attempt.

I never said "Its ICE's fault that their DEF was working incorrectly". Its the DEVs fault, if anyone, but that doesn't mean it should remain "broken" to your advantage.

[ QUOTE ]
A more appropriate analogy might be that if you had that dark scrapper hit by fire/lethal attack, you now only get to use the highest resistance to the attack, not both. You'd get to use either lethal or fire resistance, whichever is higher, never both. This is what is happening to defense. Not very desirable.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll take it. Where do I sign up?? You're saying that ONLY getting to use your HIGHER RES against two different damage types is a PROBLEM???

Let me try to illustrate the back-aassword-ness of your post.

My Dark Armor scrapper gets 22.5 Smashing/Lethal 15% Neg from Dark Embrace.

Someone hits me with a 50% Smash, 50% Neg attack. Each component is doing 50 HPs.

Under the actual way it works rules, I take (.785*50) + (.85*50) = 81.75 damage.

Under the system you posted as "not desirable", I take (.785*100) = 78.5 damage.

Not desirable, eh? Like I said, let me know where I can sign up and I'll be there with bells on.

The bigger the gap between my "higher RES" and my "lower RES", the better this is.

DA/Stone have NEVER gotten to ADD the two together against multiple-damage type attacks, stacking armors or no stacking armors. ICE got to do this with their +DEF, as did FF

With GEKO handing out [Censored] to the "Ice is getting screwed" crowd, you'd think they'd accept the incorrectness of their position.

If being pointedly corrected by a DEV doesn't alter your misconceptions of the facts, I guess I should stop wasting my valuable time.

Edited: Maybe you meant that I only get to use the higher +RES against its appropriate damage type, and the other damage comes through completely un-resisted??? That is undesirable. However, its a strawman arguement.

There is only one TOHIT roll with an attack, regardless of how many damage types it does. Your comparison is only valid if multiple-damage type attacks had individual TOHIT rolls for each portion of their damage. That hardly makes any sense.

I swing at your exposed throat with a flaming club. It does smashing/lethal. I hit with the smashing damage, crushing your windpipe, ensuring a swift and painful death without a trach. I roll to see if the fire hits you, somehow managing to do no damage from the fire whatsoever.

Attacks with multiple-damage types have a single, unified TOHIT roll for a simple reason: ITS ONE ATTACK.

Applicable RES works separately on each damage type in an attack because there are multiple damage types coming in. If I got to apply my highest +RES across the entire attack, even better for me.

[ QUOTE ]

Resistance of the same type stacks just the same as defense of the same type stacks, but you get to pick the higher defense type when you are hit by a dual typed attack. This is an advantage over resistance, NOT a drawback.

[/ QUOTE ]

Preach on brother rat!!! You sir, get pie.

[ QUOTE ]
So, to confirm, hopefully by Geko, no defenses stack if they are against the same type?

So, picking up CJ and haste (both non-slotted for def), you still only have 5% defense? Add in stealth and that defense is used instead of CJ and haste, not in addition to?

As a better example, as an illusion controller, slotting out maneuvers and group invisibility nets you nothing, as only the higher value will be used?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. Multiple sources of DEF against the same type of damage are cumulative.

The issue is two part

1) there was a bug that allows Defenses that applied to different damage types (smashing/lethal, for instance) to be ADDED together against any attack that did Smashing/Lethal damage. This made DM and ENG (and a few others) have a very hard time hitting certain badguys (Forcefields).

This bug was benefitting ForceField Defenders.

2) Stacking armors come along and now folks like ICE, Stone and Dark can run more than one armor at a time. In the case of Stone and Dark, that meant you could have a wider range of +RES up at once. In the case of ICE, you got a wider range of +DEF.

The bug and stacking armors combined to offer ICE an un-anticipated boost. If they were running armors that offer , for example, Smashing and Fire +DEF, and were attacked by a Smashing/Fire attack, the +DEF from each armor was added together before being applied to the incoming attack.

The same was not true for Stone/Dark. +RES from multiple armors would be applied appropriately to each of the incoming damage types. The two +RES were not added together and then applied to the total incoming damage.

The BUG was fixed and now ICE is returned to "the way its supposed to work". The false argument offered by several folks here is that "Our armors don't stack now".

They do stack per design, you can run more than one at a time for a WIDER range of +DEF or +RES. You cannot, and were never supposed to, run more than one at a time for a DEEPER +DEF or +RES vs. attacks of multiple-damage types.

If you have two armors that apply to the SAME damage types (Negative from Dark Embrace and Murky Cloud both), those +RES (or +DEF for ICE) will add up.

I suppose there was some confusion on what "STACKING armors" meant. It would have been better if they had been called "Concurrent Armors" or "Simultaneous Armors" or "No longer Exclusive Armors"

Regardless of any possible name confusion, the armors DO stack, if the +DEF or +RES is of the same type.

CJ and HASTEN combine to offer +10 DEF against the attacks which they cover.

Hopefully, I was coherent in my explanation.

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Yeah, but this basically screws Ice Tankers, no have almost NO resistance, and all defense. Now they have MUCH less defense because their stacked armors will not help them.


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Well, that's not entirely true. You're still getting the benefit of the "higher of the two" DEFs. You're lucky they aren't averaged, or worse, taking the "lower of the two".

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, still.

Its been hosing certain toons forever and benefitting others. Now that its hurting some others, the fix "sucks". Not from where I'm sitting, I assure you.


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What the hell kind of lame answer is that? Fix one, screw the other? Are you always that myopic? It's pretty obvious you've never played an ice tanker, so I don't know why you bothered to reply. How does the higher of the two equate to "stacking armors" which is what the Devs JUST rolled out? Since SO many attacks do smashing/leathal, in addition to other damage types, why not just leave up FA, which has a higher defense that the other armor sets? If the lower defense rating are simply ignored, they serve NO purpose at all, except to drain end faster.

Try to look beyond the end of your own nose the next time you post.

[/ QUOTE ]

Myopic?


Defense still stacks. If you have defense to fire and lethal, you don’t get double defense to a fire sword and regular defense to a regular swords and fire blasts (that is not fair to the guy with the fire sword, nor is that system fair to Dark scrappers, or energy blasters). It does mean you get the chance to apply the higher of the 2 values.

The lower defense values are not ignored. If you have 30% defense to lethal, and 20% defense to fire, you get 30% defense to a fire sword (the higher of the 2). But you still get 20% defense to a fire only attack like a fire blast. Of course the lower one serves a purpose. And if you get an Insulation Shield put on you, your Fire defense may go to about 40%, so now you get 40% defense to a fire sword (the new higher of the 2), and 30% defense to a broadsword.

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I've been validated by GEKO

I can die happy now.

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Your educated reasoning and mathematical proof has no power here!! People are mad cause their defense got lowered and they will whine about it for a while. Just gotta let it die down.

I just love reading threads like this and see a few people give accurate information, and the nay sayers NEVER respond to that person, only to the ones that have vague information and continue the "yes it is. no it isn't. yes it is." posts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Truer words have seldom appeared on these forums.

You get Pie.

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Yeah, but this basically screws Ice Tankers, no have almost NO resistance, and all defense. Now they have MUCH less defense because their stacked armors will not help them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, that's not entirely true. You're still getting the benefit of the "higher of the two" DEFs. You're lucky they aren't averaged, or worse, taking the "lower of the two".

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, still.

Its been hosing certain toons forever and benefitting others. Now that its hurting some others, the fix "sucks". Not from where I'm sitting, I assure you.

[/ QUOTE ]

What the hell kind of lame answer is that? Fix one, screw the other? Are you always that myopic? It's pretty obvious you've never played an ice tanker, so I don't know why you bothered to reply. How does the higher of the two equate to "stacking armors" which is what the Devs JUST rolled out? Since SO many attacks do smashing/leathal, in addition to other damage types, why not just leave up FA, which has a higher defense that the other armor sets? If the lower defense rating are simply ignored, they serve NO purpose at all, except to drain end faster.

Try to look beyond the end of your own nose the next time you post.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rude and ignorant. Would you like a clue to go with your supply of Ad Homs??

Stacking armors never meant that your DEF from two different powers would ADD together. It meant that you could run two or more armor toggles at the same time, when you could not previously.

How does this screw you?

Let say you have 3 different armors (no clue if these are real)

SMash/Lethal
Energy/Fire
Cold

Lets say each adds +35 DEF to those attack types. Prior to stacking armors, you could have ONE of these running at a time. You'd get the bonus against a Smashing attack, but not Cold, for instance.

Now, you can run all three and have a DEF bonus against them all. What you can't do is this:

A combined SMASHING/COLD attack will no longer add your SMASHING DEF and COLD DEF together for purposes of determining your total defense. You will get the higher of the two. Before Stacking Armors, you'd only have gotten one or the other anyway, as you could only run one at a time (except if an armor was smash/cold specific)

Your complaint would be like my Dark Armor scrapper saying:

Stacking armors SUCKS. Now I can run all three +RES toggles simultaneously, but if I take a smashing/fire attack, my +RES against them isn't ADDED together, and that SUCKS!!!!! Stacking armor SUCKS!!!!!! Down with the DEVS!!!!!

The only reason you expected them to work that way is that DEF vs. combined damage types was BROKEN, and has been since Pre-I2.

As for "helping someone and screwing someone else"....

That's what was happening before, That is not what's happening now.

Before the fix, those who were hurt were hurt by a BUG and those that were helped were helped by a BUG.

NOW, those who are "helped" are actually only "normalized", while those who are "hurt" are actually only "normalized".

The person who no longer benefits from the BUG certainly feels like they're getting screwed, but they are not.

Benefiting from a bug, whether you know about it or not, is not guaranteed to last forever.

Your Ice Armors are now working like they are supposed to work. I feel for you if your toon is now hosed, maybe the free respec would help?

The end of my nose has little to do with it. I don't have a DM scrapper and my ENG blaster is in mothballs (due to the acc bug, actually).

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, but this basically screws Ice Tankers, no have almost NO resistance, and all defense. Now they have MUCH less defense because their stacked armors will not help them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, that's not entirely true. You're still getting the benefit of the "higher of the two" DEFs. You're lucky they aren't averaged, or worse, taking the "lower of the two".

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, still.

Its been hosing certain toons forever and benefitting others. Now that its hurting some others, the fix "sucks". Not from where I'm sitting, I assure you.

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The TV idea is much better than cameras. Positron, if this is indeed possible given the new evidence, I'd take this route. You do not want to flood the arenas with cameras. Having invisible TV screens would be much better and the suites idea with individual instances would cut down on lag.

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What evidence are you talking about? Conjecture from forum patrons that aren't on the development team that have absolutely no idea what the code architecture is like?

Believe me, I'd love to watch arena matches on a giant Trinitron, but if the devs say it's impossible... well, we've just got to believe them.

I still want it though...

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Part of the issue with folks commenting when we aren't aware of the limitations and functionality of the engine is:

We aren't aware of the limitations and functionality of the engine.

I can find detailed info on the features of all ID engines, Epic's various UNREAL incarnations, SOURCE, Serious engine and lots of others. I could tell you that "ENGINE X supports view Portals", or "Engine X supports continuous LoD", etc.

With the CoH engine, all we really know is that it has a particle engine, has some form of LoD and draws pretty nice superheros.

Why I can't go to a page and get a list of "Feature BulletPoints", I have no idea. I don't see Cryptic working hard to gather up licensees for the engine, so any missing features aren't going to cost them a licensing deal.

SO, fess up Cryptic, what exactly, does your engine support. If we had a definitive "WE DON'T HAVE PORTALS", I'd say, "yeah, I guess render to texture is probably the only alternative, and not a good one at that".

Don't be so darn Cryptic.

Or send a DEMO file to those watching, have the client "play it back" in near-real-time, with the ability to save it locally.

Posi,

rendering to a texture should not be required.

UNREAL had portals back in '98 that would do exactly what you want, with a minor hit in performance.

The area of the TV screen is actually a PORTAL (hence the term) that allows you to see the arena from some fixed (or mobile) viewpoint.

No render to texture required at all.

It may be that the engine doesn't support view Portals like this, but that is the correct solution for having "a giant TV screen".

I also took Murky Cloud early because "I HAD TO", didn't want DS or Gambler's Cut.

People always talk about "respecing out of those weak attacks", but often, you can't. You can sometimes reduce the # of slots in them, if you have something early that needs slots (Buildup and HASTEN for me).

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Op gloom is also a toggle breaker, where fear is not.

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Excellent point. That's a big plus for OG, one I didn't realize.

To a previous poster who asked about "Dark consumption":

I know that Ghost_cat's build assumes DM/DA but a lot of other /DA are using the Scary_Scraptroller template. We don't get Dark Consumption, so slotting shields/DS/CoF for END RDX is more important for us. DM/DA work very well together. I think KAT/DA is great for the DivineAvalanche, filling the DEF void in DA until CoD/CoF (and after).

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How do you have any endurance while using Dark Armor? Without Conserve Power, you'd hardly regenerate anything even if you standing around not attacking.

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Actually, I can run ALL my toggles at once, Un-enhanced and still hold even while standing. Perma-Hasten will drop me 20 every 2 minutes, so that throws it off.


I'll list my toggles, their base EPS and enhanced EPS in my build

Combat Jumping .08 .08
Dark Embrace .39 .23
Murky Cloud .39 .29
Obsidian Shield .39 .29
CloaKDarkness .39 .29
CLoakFear .71 .42
SuperSpeed .53 .39

Un-enhanced base END drain per second = 2.88
With my enhancement slots, EPS = 2.01

My normal load-out consists of DE, CJ, SS, CoD, for .99 EPS

With Six-slotted Stamina, I recover 2.92 EPS, which covers the maximum, unenhanced toggle load. With full load and my enhancements, I recover almost 1 EPS, my normal load out, I regain 1.93 EPS.

Endurance is an issue, but if I'm in a fight that I know I can win, and there are limited mobs within aggro range, I'll drop SuperSpeed. I only run OS against "controller or stunner" types, and I drop it when its not needed. MurkyCloud is very situational. CloakofFear isn't needed in every fight. CJ is just free.

END INSP are CHEAP and tend to drop pretty frequently from minions and LTs. (moreso than HEALTH)

END use can be mitigated and managed. Its not going away but that's what CONSERVE POWER is for

Since I went with a modified "Scary Scraptroller" build with my KAT/DA, the only time I use LOTUS Drops is when I'm not running CoF.

Disembowel and Headsplitter will be my cornerstones. So, in effect, I'm morphing into a Single-target, high-damage scrapper, similar to MA, instead of a mixed single/AEO like Katana.

I still use Flashing Steel and Lotus Drops, but not nearly like I used to when "I HAD TO" to survive. I currently have 4XDAM in my Lotus Drops but if I run a respec trial in the future, I'll probably not put 4 slots into Lotus again.

I might suggest putting HASTEN in earlier. I know that you can't use it very often at low levels, due to the long recharge, BUT:
You'll notice that as you respec, you will be forced to stick slots into early powers that you really don't want to slot heavily. (gamblers, etc). By taking HASTEN early, you have a power that you intend to 6-slot and as such, you can put those early slots into HASTEN instead of wasting them in low-level attacks.
How often to you plan to exemplar down to sub-14th level in the future? Its not a great idea to gimp your early build, but if exemplaring isn't a big deal to you, don't feel you need to have a perfectly balanced character at all levels (ie, don't worry about short-slotting your weak attacks, you'll seldom use them)
In my case, on respec, I used HASTEN, BUILDUP and Dark Embrace as places to put my slots early. Otherwise, I would have been forced to put them elsewhere (gamblers, Wasp)
Dark Regen is nice, and I took it originally about the same time you have listed. I found that it
a) is super expensive END wise
b) didn't recharge fast enough
c) took too long to activate, about 2 seconds is TOO LONG
The conundrum of DarkRegen is that usually, by the time you need to fire it off, you don't have enough END to fire it off. If you use it early in the fight to re-fill your health after the LAST battle, you end up with only half your end for the rest of the fight. If you wait until 25% health, to make DarkRegen worth while, you risk being one-shotted while it activates and heals you.
As such, I respec'd out of DarkRegen for the moment, planning to take it late 30's. At that point, I can put Single-Origin End reductions in it, requiring fewer slots to make it useful, and given how many slots you get post-30, it won't take long to get it so I can use it at will, for cheap.
Either slot it up, or don't take it, the case with things like DeathShroud and DarkRegen.

If you put this .txt into HeroPlanner, you can see when I took stuff.
------------------------ (don't put this in the file)
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Katana
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Sting of the Wasp /EndRdx
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /EndRdx,EndRdx,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Flashing Steel /EndRdx,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[04] Level 4 : Murky Cloud /EndRdx
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[06] Level 8 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[07] Level 10 : Divine Avalanche /DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf
Slot[08] Level 12 : Hurdle /Jump
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Speed /EndRdx
Slot[10] Level 16 : Health /Heal
Slot[11] Level 18 : The Lotus Drops /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[13] Level 22 : Obsidian Shield /EndRdx
Slot[14] Level 24 : Cloak Of Darkness /EndRdx
Slot[15] Level 26 : Soaring Dragon /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[16] Level 28 : Cloak Of Fear /EndRdx,EndRdx
Slot[17] Level 30 : Combat Jumping /Jump
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Acc
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Empty
Slot[27] Level 2 : Rest /Rchg
Pools//8,2,1,5
Slots@-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,3,8,3,-1,-1,-2,2,2,9,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,4,4,8,-1,-1,-2,5,5,6,7,7,-2,6,9,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,10,10,12,-1,-1,-2,11,11,12,13,13,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,14,14,15,-1,-1,-2,15,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-2,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
SlotT$EndRdx,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,EndRdx,EndRdx,DamRes,DamRes,
Empty,Empty,EndRdx,
Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Empty,Empty,EndRdx,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Empty,
Empty,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,
Rchg,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Jump,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,EndRdx,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Heal,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Empty,Empty,EndRec,
EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRdx,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,EndRdx,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,
Empty,Empty,EndRdx,EndRdx,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Jump,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Acc,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty,Rchg,Empty,
Empty,Empty,Empty,Empty
-------------------------------(don't put this line in)
This should give you a list of when I took various slots. No build is perfect. This one could use more END, even with 6-slotted Stamina. My attacks are going to end up 5xDAM 1XEnd, unless I can't hit the broadside of a barn. I typically use BUILDUP all the time, and can coast through the BUILDUP downtime using the stacked "-DEF debuffs" that Katana attacks apply to badguys Once Buildup is ready again, ACC problems go away for 10 seconds.
Feel free to PM me.

Post Respec, Post Stacking armors, my build

Tehr Won Luhs, Lvl 30 Kat/Da, Victory

Archetype: Scrapper
Primary Powers - Melee : Katana
Secondary Powers - Defense : Dark Armor
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Sting of the Wasp /EndRdx
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Embrace /EndRdx,EndRdx,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[03] Level 2 : Flashing Steel /EndRdx,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[04] Level 4 : Murky Cloud /EndRdx
Slot[05] Level 6 : Build Up /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[06] Level 8 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[07] Level 10 : Divine Avalanche /ToHitDebuff,ToHitDebuff,ToHitDebuff
Slot[08] Level 12 : Hurdle /Jump
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Speed /EndRdx
Slot[10] Level 16 : Health /Heal
Slot[11] Level 18 : The Lotus Drops /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[13] Level 22 : Obsidian Shield /EndRdx
Slot[14] Level 24 : Cloak Of Darkness /EndRdx
Slot[15] Level 26 : Soaring Dragon /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[16] Level 28 : Cloak Of Fear /EndRdx,EndRdx
Slot[17] Level 30 : Combat Jumping /Jump
Slot[25] Level 1 : Brawl /Acc
Slot[26] Level 1 : Sprint-Prestige /Jump
Slot[27] Level 1 : Sprint / Jump
Slot[28] Level 2 : Rest /Rchg

My +DEF went from +5 (Hasten only) to burying badguys at 5% to hit, running

Hasten
C.J
CoF
CoD
Parry (stacking)

Life is much better now. I took a Purple CoT mage boss this weekend without getting hit once. Yeah, baby!

Watching a Skyraider run in a very tight circle, hands up, shaking uncontrollably, screaming as I rushed to finish him with my KAT/DA was just too much. You don't get to HEAR the screams very often, but its awesome.

"A few levels ago, you and your friends cut me down with your knives. Now, you cower at my very presence. Ah, what a difference a respec makes "

I'll add another +1 for the Dads.

I have a 6th grader and a 3-month old. I get to play Friday nights and early mornings on weekdays.

I typically get up at 5:30-6:00am to feed my son, then put him back to bed. I have about 30-45 minutes to play CoH before I have to get ready for work. During those minutes, I have to ensure that my 6th grade daughter is getting ready for the school bus, instead of spending 30 minutes fixing her hair.

a) during those early mornings, why should I waste my limited time trying to find a pickup team, which often suck hardcore.
b) why should I inflict my short timeframes on other players who are also looking for a team because they can't solo their own missions. I have to routinely turn down requests to team because I won't be in long enough to help them.
c) what d@mned business is it of STATESMAN or any other Dev how I choose the play the game I'm paying for, as long as I play within the rules?

I agree with a previous poster: Social engineering on the part of Game Designers in MMO games is just like real-life Social Engineering: Arrogance surrounding the feeling that as one of the "educated Literati", your vision of Utopia should be imposed on everyone around you, under the auspices of "cooperation and common good".

Well, Social Engineering bites and so does forced teaming. If you want to ENCOURAGE teaming, give people rewards for doing so. Extra Drops, Extra XP, Extra INF, etc. Oh, wait, teams already get all those things from the increased spawns and increased Lvl of the badguys......

My .04

So, an additional 40% HP and 40% damage is "Just +1"

That doesn't match with the experiences of your players.

You're saying that a Yellow Boss has 40% more HP and does 40% more damage than a White Boss of same type? Sorry, not the case.

+2, at the minimum, is more like it.

Thus, the bugged +2 Purple Lvl 30 Rikti Chief boss I had in a mission today is really the equivalent of a +6. Oh, and I had to beat him to complete the mission.

Took 3 trips to a contact to refill on INSP and about 7 minutes to finish him, while he hit me for 530pts per swing vs. my 100-120. Oh, and he had about 3000hps vs my 800hps.

I incurred 8k debt when he killed me the first try, but only got 1600xp for defeating him.

Yep, "They're only +1"