Redlynne
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Posts
1942 -
Joined
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The blast radius of a Seeker Drone is only 10 ft anyway. Could just use that as the Buff Radius too.
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I think that Willpower/Kinetic Melee makes for a very good, thematic pairing.
It also gives you one of the few "natural" builds if that's what you're aiming for. -
So clearly the answer is to reprogram Photon Seekers to instead be an emulation/variant of Extract Essence which doesn't require a corpse to summon.
Rig it so that it is "perma" out of the box (duration = recharge) without enhancement, and permit more than one to be summoned at a time. The summoned pets just shoot Gleaming Bolt (single target) and Gleaming Blast (single target) and Proton Scatter (cone) attacks, just like a Warshade's Fluffies, which have a Defense Debuff rather than a Slow Debuff effect and get white animations rather than purple/black.
Set the base recharge and duration for 240 seconds (ie. the same as Warshade Fluffies) and call it a day.
So instead of deploying self-destructing one-shot bombs ... you'd get White Fluffies that look an awful lot like Light Form (ie. reuse avatar for Photon Seekers).
S imple.
E asy.
E ffective.
Not being done ...
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Quote:For Huntsman build, using the gun attacks, the primary goal is +Recharge. Everything else is secondary to that. With Incarnate Alpha it is possible to achieve Perma Hasten without resorting to Purple Sets, provided you pick Spiritual Alpha.Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
So what were your primary goals when Making your Non crab soldiers (yes including banes) and what play style choices help you enjoy your soldiers?
My typical attack pattern is:
Web Grenade, Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, Heavy Burst, Single Shot, Burst, Single Shot
If I've got Surveillance available, I'll typically deploy that before shooting the Web Grenade. The combination of controls, resistance debuffs and HP debuffs (snerk) in the above combo is really potent when combined with doubled Training and Leadership toggles giving a massive ToHit Buff, Defense Buff and Damage Buff to my team. And I can slot Achilles' Heel procs for even more resistance debuffing courtesy of my Burst and Heavy Burst attacks. Frag Grenade gets a Force Feedback proc in it for "mini-Hasten" effects.
All in all, it's pretty brutal ... and noisy in a "I'm never going to run out of ammo!" kind of ankle deep in brass casings sort of way.
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Search Fu is your friend. Use it wisely, young grasshopper.
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Quote:+3Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
My one and only wish for bases:
Developer interest/response.
Anything placed before this is irrelevant. -
Quote:And as soon as we see Alpha Enhancements trading on WW and the BM, you might have the opportunity to say "the market has spoken" with respect to Alpha Slots. Until then, your assertion isn't very relevant to the differences in return on investment in choices of what to Alpha Slot with.Originally Posted by all_hell
I think the market shows that a percent of def is worth more than a percent of Endurance Reduction, Damage Buff, Recharge Reduction, or Accuracy.
Def is one of the more worthwhile attributes point for point. Your comparison isn't very relevant. -
Quote:Find where I even used the word(s) soft cap in my OP.Originally Posted by je_saist
A: the incarnate system was not designed to grant soft-cap.
B: the average to-hit granted to NPC characters in Incarnate content has been raised so that you can't realistically soft-cap.
C: The days of passive soft cap are over. Get over it and learn to play the game.
My point was not in any way related to the soft cap, and instead entirely related to the return on investment. A point you appear to have completely missed in your zeal to be obnoxious (again).
To repeat ... it is simply not possible to achieve greater than +6% Defense gain from the Very Rare Nerve Alpha slot with toggle and auto powers. A much more likely value is closer to +4% Defense, and possibly even less (depending on Powersets). That is a very tiny return on investment relative to the other options available to Defensive Powersets. -
Smiling Joe ... have a look (if you can) at what would happen if PB Build Up were redone as a Power Siphon (Kinetic Melee) clone instead, and one that would work with ranged attacks and not just melee. Go ahead and ignore the damage debuff aspect and work instead only on the stacking damage buff side of the equation and see what comes out.
Photon Seekers are (currently) a Crashless Nuke power at the moment ... and a pretty crummy one at that. I wouldn't mind getting a (functional) clone of Assault Rifle's Full Auto in place of Photon Seekers, where you repeatedly bombard an AoE with little glowing balls of light that go kaboom. Heck, even redoing the power as a "rain" power would be a vast improvement on it at this stage. -
My Huntsman is a HP Debuffer. True story.
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Lethal Damage is the most commonly resisted form of damage in the game. More things resist Lethal Damage than even Smashing Damage.
Most Commonly Resisted Damage is not synonymous with "useless" though. All it means is that the min-max crowd will turn their nose up at it, because some other damage type is resisted by 2% fewer hostiles (statistically speaking).
If you want useless, try Negative Energy against CoT Ghouls and Ghosts ... and even then, you're still doing damage to them.
So long as your damage output is greater than your target's regeneration (or heal) capabilities, your damage is not "useless" ... -
Quote:** THIS **Originally Posted by Dead_West
Unfortunately, we don't have one single developer responsible for base design
This is our problem.
No one is "responsible" for bases.
No *ONE* person has taken responsibility for Bases.
There is no *ONE* advocate for them on the Dev Team. There is no *ONE* "producer" type person who is "tending the garden" that is SG Bases, marshalling the resources necessary to GET THINGS DONE with them. Instead, Base Issues are essentially a game of Pass The Buck among the various teams and departments ... and since everyone is ALWAYS busy with other issues, Bases always have and always will lose out whenever it comes to a matter of allocating resources needed for Base Love.
At this point, it is fair to say that SG Bases are an orphaned feature of the CoX game. If they weren't someone would have dropped by these forums to say something ... ANYTHING ... since the Base Love That Wasn't Issue two years ago.
What this tells me is that unless someone with the stature of Noble Savage, or Positron, or War Witch, gets behind an effort to do something about SG Bases ... nothing will ever happen ever again. There's always going to be something more important for people in the various departments of Paragon Studios to do than deal with Bases.
Worst of all, this is not a result of something like a "We Hate Bases" sort of active stance on the part of the Devs. It's a result of the Org Chart, and how resources get allocated within the business. Since Bases, and the upgrading and extension of their features and functionality, is not the CLEAR responsibility for any particular department (or Dev) ... they are "claimed" by no one.
And so no one does anything about them.
And we wait ... for years ... in vain ... when no one is listening. -
Here is a reference Test Mule mocked up very quickly in Mids' for purposes of demonstration of just how bad the Nerve Alpha is for Defensive Powersets.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Defense Test Mule: Level 48 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: [Empty]
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(7), DefBuff(7)
Level 2: Focused Senses -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(3), DefBuff(3)
Level 4: Agile -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5), DefBuff(5)
Level 6: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(9), DefBuff(9)
Level 10: Maneuvers -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(11), DefBuff(11)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(13), DefBuff(13)
Level 14: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Dodge -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(17), DefBuff(17)
Level 18: Hover -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(19), DefBuff(19)
Level 20: Weave -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(21), DefBuff(21)
Level 22: [Empty]
Level 24: [Empty]
Level 26: [Empty]
Level 28: Lucky -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(29), DefBuff(29)
Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: Evasion -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(36), DefBuff(36)
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: Moonbeam -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Shadow Meld -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(45), DefBuff(45)
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
Level 50: Nerve Total Radial Revamp
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
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Set Bonus Totals:------------
Set Bonuses:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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The test build uses every single Defensive Power (primary, secondary and pool) available to a Kat/SR Scrapper. Each Defensive Power is slotted with three +0 SOs for reference testing and turning on only the Toggles and Auto powers.
Without the Alpha Slot: 45.7% Defense vs Melee, Ranged, AoE
WITH the Very Rare Nerve Alpha Slot: 49.9% Defense vs Melee, Ranged, AoE
That means that on a Sacrifice Everything To Defense character with *TEN* Defense Powers ... all three slotted with +0 SOs ... the gain in overall Defense vs All, after ED punishment is ... +4.2% to all positionals.
If I use the Flip to Alternate feature in Mids' so as to "unslot" all 10 of those same Toggle and Auto powers, I get the following numbers:
No slotting and without Alpha Slot: 29.3% Defense vs Melee, Ranged, AoE
No slotting and WITH the Very Rare Nerve Alpha Slot: 35.1% Defense vs Melee, Ranged, AoE
That means that on a Sacrifice Everything To Defense character, running *TEN* Defensive toggle and auto powers ... the net gain, undiminished by ED punishment is ... +5.8% to all positionals.
What this means is that it is essentially IMPOSSIBLE to gain more than 4-6% Defense vs All at all times by slotting the Very Rare Nerve Alpha.
4-6% Defense from MAXIMUM return on investment through toggles and auto powers from Very Rare Nerve Alpha.
Anyone care to speculate what the reaction would be like if Very Rare Cardiac offered +5% Endurance Reduction? Or if Very Rare Musculature offered +5% Damage Buff? Or if Very Rare Spiritual offered +5% Recharge Reduction? Or if Very Rare Nerve offered +5% Accuracy?
Essentially, the return on investment into Very Rare Nerve Alpha slotting is so pathetically miniscule for Defensive Powersets (for whom such a return on investment really ought to be maximal) that the benefit might as well not exist at all in terms of weighting its value relative to other potential choices that could have been taken instead.
Once again, Defense gets the short end of the stick ... -
Quote:Nothing ... since if it did actually proc, you'd stun yourself, not the hostiles you're shooting at. For this reason, the proc only works in powers that affect Foes, not Self.Originally Posted by David_Yanakov
Nova also takes endurance mod sets. What happens if you slot a chance to stun in there from the Energy Manipulator set?
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Quote:How many Dark Blasts vs how many Moonbeams is only relevant in the context of sustained attacking over time ... meaning part of an Out Of Hidden attack chain. As I mentioned in my OP, if what you're seeking is sustained DPS during combat, you want Dark Blast ... but if what you're looking for is high burst damage as a surprise attack from Hidden status, you're going to want Moonbeam.Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
You can fire off Dark Blast 5-6 (maybe even more) times in the same time it takes to fire 2 Moonbeams with similar slotting.
Yes Moonbeam has an extremely long windup animation ... but when you're solo and nothing's aggroed onto you and you can pick and choose your targets and time of attack, and hostiles cannot engage you until YOU attack, that windup animation (or the interrupt time in it) isn't a "problem" anymore. You can simply use Moonbeam as a big Damage Per Attack power delivering a big damage spike to your initial target as you attack from Hidden status. The point is that when using it as a one-shot opening gambit to initiate combat on your own terms, Moonbeam is better than Dark Blast ... in much the same way that it's kinda pointless to try and work Assassin's Strike into a standard attack chain. You use Assassin's Strike to START combat, on your own terms, but then don't use it (much) DURING extended combat. Same deal here with Moonbeam. Use it as a big damage spike up front, like Assassin's Strike, and you'll still have your Placate+Assassin's Strike available for immediate followup.
With */Ninjitsu, you've even got another trick in the bag ... involving Smoke Flash (which I know most people eschew on the grounds that it's an escape move, and if you need to "escape" from combat, you're doing it wrong). But if you can open with Moonbeam, you can immediately follow up with Smoke Flash at the beginning of combat to limit the number of hostiles you have to deal with, making any continued combat a 1-on-1 affair for the next 15 seconds. Follow Smoke Flash with your Tier 9 attack and whatever you're up against is going to be hurting ... and ripe for Placate+Assassin's Strike (if needed) in relative safety. That's a whole lot of spike damage in a pretty short time after Moonbeam's damage lands on target ... and you just can't get that from Dark Blast using repeating attacks for sustained, rather than spike, DPS. -
Quote:6 second interrupt is no big deal when you can make surprise attacks from Hide. Yeah, the animation time is looooong ... but if you're Hidden and not being attacked, and you aren't steamrolling with a team (ie. you're solo), then the animation time becomes academic when used as an opening surprise attack move.Originally Posted by Wonderslug
Yes, they critical when hidden.
Moonbeam does about 250 damage less than AS, assuming ED slotting and no Build Up. Using Moonbeam > Placate > AS will work fine, provided you don't mind the six second interrupt on Moonbeam; you almost certainly have faster ways to achieve similar results.
Okay, good to know. Thanks. -
I've come up against a contradiction in documentation on the Soul Mastery attack powers for Stalkers, Dark Blast and Moonbeam, between what can be found in the City of Data repository and the v1.920 of Mids'. If anyone actually has either (or both) of these powers on their Stalkers, could you be so kind as to check the in-game data provided on the enhancement slotting screen and share it here?
Specifically, what interests me is that the City of Data entry for Moonbeam (and Dark Blast too for that matter) shows that both of these two attacks do extra damage when Hidden. What I would like confirmed is if Moonbeam specifically delivers a damage burst from Hidden status that looks like it ought to rival the damage throughput of almost any primary powerset's Assassination Strike.
A lot of what I've read concerning the tradeoffs between Moonbeam and Dark Blast have to do with whether or not either of these attacks can be used as part of a regular attack chain, mixed in with the Primary attack powers. In such an analysis, the answer is (somewhat obviously) Dark Blast, because of its fast cycle time and quick animation speed. But that neglects the potential of Moonbeam when used as an alpha strike, from Hidden status, as an extreme range Assassination Strike. To be sure, sitting back at extreme range, doing nothing but Moonbeam, would be a hideous waste of damage potential over time ... but when used as a single shot opening gambit? The calculus changes when thinking of Moonbeam as an additional Assassination Strike which can be safely launched from Hidden status even while standing next to the target.
Using Moonbeam as an Opening Attack from Hidden status leaves your Placate and Assassination Strike in reserve for immediate use after completing Moonbeam, if "sniping" at melee range to your $Target. And under most circumstances where you (the Stalker) have the initiative and can choose when to begin combat on your own terms (such as when soloing), being able to (Hidden) Moonbeam --> Placate --> Assassin Strike as an opening attack gambit on unaware mobs could prove to be a decisive advantage when dealing with either a single tough Boss that you want to dispatch quickly ... or a pair of Lieutenants in close proximity to each other that you want to defeat in a hurry.
And this is also not counting the possibilities of Corner Pulling at long range, where forcing a mob to come to you (thanks to terrain blocking Line of Sight) might require them to take upwards of 8 seconds to arrive at your location, in which case you will have re-entered Hide just in time for them to round the corner and meet your Assassin Strike ... and you'd still have Placate in your back pocket for dealing with anything else in the spawn group.
Bottom line ... if you're trying to work Dark Blast/Moonbeam into your in-combat attack chain ... go for Dark Blast. If instead you want a second (ranged) Assassination Strike ... consider Moonbeam.
And for those of us who live and die by reaching the Defense Softcap, a 6-slot Extreme Measures (sniper set) in Moonbeam is not to be dismissed lightly, if you're close but not quite there yet on your build. -
Quote:As people in the navy would say ... that's SOS.Originally Posted by Djeannie
How about the fact that this task force only awards 20 merits and the far easier hero version awards 30 merits?
Barracuda's SF is more obnoxious than Khan's TF by just about every measure you can possibly name. The absurd "bury you in ambush" in the final fight of the Barracuda SF is WAY more difficult to survive than dealing with solo AVs on the Khan TF.
I make it a point to avoid the Barracuda SF as much as possible. -
Quote:6 years of development history (2005-2011) says ... "NO."Originally Posted by Commando
Could we learn from that and give Khelds a much much needed makeover?
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Minor update (on the off chance anyone cares) ...
Yesterday I was running a bunch of my characters through the Valentine's Day arc and was ultimately surprised that I was able to solo Snaptooth (and the hordes) twice on my PB without being defeated even once. Now, admittedly, it took a while (to whittle away the horde), and I'm missing some 10+ enhancements out of my PB build ... but still ... it was nice to get that kind of "validation" of the build I'm using, even if it was on "easy" content such as soloing Snaptooth for Valentine's Day. -
Quote:I'll dispute this notion out of personal preference. Then again, I like to make sure that I can get all my set bonuses at levels 24+ and 28+ so that I'm just about as powerful when I exemplar as when I'm at 50+1.Originally Posted by Jade_Dragon
Basically, resist the temptation to get Set Bonuses, you're just trying to squeeze efficiency out of slots.
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Some of the limitations however are quite silly ... like not being able to summon your Veteran Buff Pet while hovering.
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Quote:And yet ... I have no problem playing the build, and get compliments on it in TFs.Originally Posted by Big_Chill
My first impression on your PB is ouch... yeah, like ouch...
More like I have 4 powers "left over" to play with and no slots available to spend on them. Powers like Photon Seekers and Quasar are great if you can slot them ... but you have to slot them (preferably 6-slot). When there are no slots left, your options for "useful" powers dwindles rather dramatically.Quote:Originally Posted by Big_Chill
You'll willingly waste 4 power picks just to nab two on Leaderships that have next to no use even if you turned them on?
And I differ on the notion that Leadership Powers "have next to no use even if you turned them on" ... because I prefer to think of my TEAM and not just myself. The teams I'm on will pretty much ALWAYS benefit from my Leadership powers, even if I myself am not deriving quite as much benefit. One example would be that I can either single target blast away in human form or nova form ... and *I* do more damage in nova form ... but in human form, with Assault running, my *TEAM* throughputs more damage than I personally could make up for by being in nova form.
Which is ironic, because the latest PB build I posted is performing above and beyond my expectations in actual gameplay. Light Form caps damage resistances *with* the three shields active. Dwarf is definitely not squishy in any team with Scrappers and Stalkers and Blasters and Corruptors in it, boosting my resistances. And Reform Essence is NOT just for looks ... it's for boosting Max HP up high enough to yield a dramatically increased HP/sec regen across all forms.Quote:Originally Posted by Big_Chill
I'll have to argue your picks on how you are doing this looks painfuly unplayable to me. I don't recall LF capping damage resistances without some slotting, your Dwarf appears squishy to me - and is Reform Essesne just for looks?
3 slotted attacks? Can't get to too many "useful" set bonuses (such as Global Recharge) that way ...Quote:Originally Posted by Big_Chill
You noted you droped Glinting Eye for Gleaming Bolt to get ranged damage up a bit; but I would argue 3 ranges ST attacks 3-slotted in my PB brings far more damage than your single option.
And while you might see bigger damage numbers per attack with your PB and slotting, I'm not so sure you'd be seeing more damage per second being throughput onto a single target as what my PB can do with Gleaming Bolt alone (especially with Assault and Global Damage enhancement).
My attacks are suffering greatly ... because they have more than 3 slots in them?Quote:Originally Posted by Big_Chill
Set Bonuses are nice; but I would argue not to slot levels for them in most cases. Your attacks are suffering greatly to get those bonuses that don't pay you back as much as the power itself.
My attacks are suffering greatly ... because they are already being impacted by ED reductions in return on investment using the levels that I'm slotting them with?
I fail to understand your use of the non-sequitron in this instance. -
Your slotting of RttC will determine your "Tankishness" in your build. 1 slot devoted to Taunt won't "do" anything meaningful to how well the aura holds aggro ... you need 2 slots of Taunt.
The reason for this is that Rise to the Challenge has a 1 second Activation and a 1.25 second Taunt duration. Note that unlike other Tanker Taunt Auras, RttC does *not* have the limitation on its Taunt effect of "Does not stack from same caster" ... meaning it is possible (and desirable!) to increase the base duration of the Taunt from 1.25 seconds to over 2 seconds. At over 2 seconds duration, the Taunt Aura is "permanently" double stacked ... giving you a Mag 3+3 (ie. enough to retain the attention of Bosses!) Taunt Aura at all times.
The minimum Taunt enhancement required to get to 2 seconds duration from 1.25 can be easily calculated:
(1.25 * (T/100 + 1)) / 100 = 2
Solve for T and the answer is +60% Taunt Duration.
So the minimum effective amount of +Taunt Duration needed (after ED!) is +60% ... and more is "better" in this case (until reaching the ED cap). Since enhancements offering +60% Taunt do not exist in the game, this means a minimum investment of 2 slots spent on Taunt Duration in order to get over the +60% Taunt Duration threshold. This can be done with either two Taunt SOs (fairly easily) or two Taunt common IOs (also very easy) ... but it can't be done with just one.
Fortunately, spending two Taunt enhancements on RttC leaves four slots left over for other enhancements ... such as a 4-slot Numina's Convalescence, which has the following (somewhat) useful set bonuses for a Willpower Tanker:
Two enhancements improves your Regeneration by 12%.
Three enhancements increases maximum Health by 1.88%.
Four enhancements improves the Healing of all your powers by 6%. -
Oh. I didn't realize that would be in any way ... unique. You're welcome.