Rhynalae

Thanks for all the info, you guys rock.

I am back after almost a four-year hiatus and have about nine issues of the game to acquaint myself with before I catch up to where I was before.

I had some acquaintance with damage auras but just remembered the horrendous END drain; after reading this thread, I'll have to pull in Lightning Field for the /elec scrapper I started rather than just skipping it.

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One quick note on copying binds from the forums.

I am seeing an increasing number of posts, both here and in my Guide to Binds for the Peacebringer, where someone is getting a "goto_tray" error msg. I think it has to do w/ when ppl copy/paste things from the forum page directly into their chat window. For whatever reason the bind doesn't transfer right.

This is not to excuse my typo earlier, but there are ppl that have the problem when copy/pasting from here. Even when the bind is typed correctly.

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Hmmm. Confirmed. Just started my PB today, spent 15 minutes pasting binds and having it fail... and once I just retyped it manually, it worked fine.

I guess it's a "feature."

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Phase Shift, including the Warburg temp power version as of some fairly recent patch, automatically shut off after 30 seconds. You may have been the victim of bad timing.

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This is the most likely answer.

You lose your phase after 30 seconds. If it was after that point, then there is nothing wrong with the power, well at least nothing that isn't "working as intended"

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Based on my experiences in the game and what later posters said, I think the OP was either the victim of lag that prevented him from seeing the damage when it occured or else the victim of delayed application of the damage from the strike.

There's been a lot of weird unexpected lag lately, even on my cable modem (which is normally fine). I also find myself taking large amounts of damage from attacks that go off, then do the damage a bit later when it seems like the mob might have missed me.

Btw, the loooong delay in activating Phase Shift is why I dropped it as a panic button for my emp/psy defender. At high levels, you will usually be dead by the time it goes off, if you are hit by something unexpected.

And now, with the 30-second timer, I find the power even less useful except situationally.

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Hmmm...

I haven't played a low level /SR for a couple of months, so at low levels, this makes a difference. But at higher levels, with SO's...i'm fighting on Invinc...without insp. If you allow my defense to work this good against +5's....that's just too good, imo.

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I have the same experience. SR's sort of a dog at low levels. I remember my Ice/Fire not being able to tank very well unless I was fighting whites and lower -- I remember yellow Council making swiss cheese out of me. Sort of embarrassing...

But once they get up into the SO range, things change immensely because the character has picked up many useful protective powers plus stronger attacks, reducing incoming damage.

I haven't hit AV's yet with a Defense-based toon, so I don't know how that works out, but right now I'm flying high. The Ice/Fire tank I mention is level 35 and can solo large groups of white and yellow Nemesis soldiers in Creys, no problem, as well as groups of yellow/orange DE. (Sure, I take some damage, but I've got a good build and can compensate for it.)

I doubt the Devs would be so blind as to just tack this on without considering the ramifications... after all they eat and breathe this game!

But I'm really interested in seeing how it's implemented.

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Ahaha . . .Castle just posted in the COV general forum . . .the nullifiers have a mag 100 hold that lasts 1/4 of a second. There's your toggle drop

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Geez. I hate that.

(The concept of a hold itself is fine. I hate the holds, though, where you don't even KNOW you've been held and after you start getting whomped on, you realize for some reason all your toggles have been down. It's a lot better to see yourself get held for a second, just so you know what happened.)

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You may also collect a ton of debt. Mu naughty presents either spawned level 2-4 snow monsters, so no XP as a lvl 10, or spawned lvl13 bosses and lewies and immediate death and debt.
Collected 3 bubbles worth of debt in about 10 presents.

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That's why you either go collecting in a lower-level zone just for the presents and badge (and screw the XP)... or you run an Illusion controller like moi and leave Superior Invisibility on so the snowmen don't even notice you when they appear.

People out for the badge always show up to mop up the extras anyway.

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So, devs, any reason that these guys are so absurdly powerful, and Arachnos is so very weak?

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Arachnos is WEAK?

Honestly, I find them as annoying as Longbows, since they hit me a lot more often than they should (obviously, something is buffing them up).

I don't underestimate either type, having fought arachnos both as villains and heroes, and having fought longbows as a villain.

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...Also look how small the villain base is, and if you count up all of the Arachnos there are only about 30 or so compared to the more than 100 that are inside the hero base alone (not counting on the shores or out back)

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Um... maybe it's an application of Stateman's maxim that one character should be able to handle three equal-level mobs (in this case, 3 villains = 10 heroes).

Go go villains!

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Did you check the streak breaker, accuracy enhancements, accuracy inspirations, & other accuracy buffs as well?

4-5 attacks with buildup and 1x so accuracy in all attacks should have an incredibly low probabliity of all missing a blue minion - yet I've seen that several times, when most likely statistically I should see that once every few months.

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I've had "bad luck" streaks hit me all the time -- I whiff a NUMBER of a times in a row (I'm talking 5 or six whiffs in a row against a blue minion, with a power I've got slotted for Accuracy and even have eaten a yellow insp...! Probably would continue to miss as well, to who knows how many times, except I take steps to fix it...).

This sort of freak occurrence should happen occasionally, but it happens much more often than it should, statistically.

What I do is step back from the mob a few spaces, let him come after me, and suddenly I start hitting again with my normal percentage (i.e., almost all the time). This works each time there is a problem -- the next swing ALWAYS hits, and I'm back to my old self.

So like the devs say, it's not a "theory" thing -- their program paradigm for attacking is fine. It's more like the random number generator gets "stuck" somehow and I need to reset it by breaking off the encounter by a few seconds.

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Damn, I liked hanging out at the enemy base chatting to people as soon as they arrive out of the chopper. This move is entirely pointless if you ask me, because its not as if anyone is ganking people at the enemy base- if you tried that you'd be dead before you could blink, with debt up to your eyeballs.

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The Drones are changed in the patch so that they no longer give debt. Thus, something will have to be done to convince people to not just camp the hero/villain hospital, get deleted, fly back to the other hospital, rinse, repeat.

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Yeah, I was sorta bummed about the removal of debt -- since I guess I'm not very favorably disposed towards hospital campers. (Of which I actually have seen a great deal, in terms of "time spent in PvP zone" vs "time spent by heroes in enemy base").

But I guess the debt drones were being abused by folks with the TP Foe power, so...

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I could be wrong, but I interperet that as simply having the buff while they are in range of the bot/drone. I don't think they are becoming buff bots who cast this on you to go out into the zone and fight.

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Makes a lot more sense, with that limitation... obviously an attempt to stop folks from camping the hospitals and such.

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Where do you get that from. The patch notes don't say anything about it.

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Didn't see it either. But I'm not sure why it's even necessary -- I'm already seen by 80% of the people in Siren's Call to begin with, so obviously they're doing fine.

Heck, last night, *I* got stalked by a scrapper, when I was supposedly Hidden and wasn't even interested in engaging. At least it gave me practice in using Placate on the fly.

The problem with PvP is that there is no "average" hero in there -- they're all "maxed out" heroes. Whereas in the regular population, only a small portion would be able to see me, evenyone in PvP tailors their build so my Hidden is virtually worthless and I'm forced to dip into power pools myself to even have a shot at using one of my few large AT advantages. (And even then, I *really* have to dip in.)

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I expect the good Stalkers will get relatively few kills with relatively few deaths. The bad ones will get impatient and die a lot. In short, Stalkers are balanced in PVE and PVP.

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That's been my experience. I'm "mediocre" right now -- I own the unwary clueless hero, but these heroes that have moved to Stage 2 strategy (i.e., increased perception, AoE effects, etc.) are much more difficult to defeat if I get impatient. I can't play haphazardly at all anymore.

Last night, when I played "pretty cautiously" but not "paranoia cautiously," I died three times and had no kills to show for it.

The Stalker-busting by some of the threads on the PvP boards is getting tiresome when it feels like I'm already working harder than most heroes just to hold even, now that they've gotten over the initial week where Stalkers were mowing through clueless players left and right, like a chainsaw through jello.


Tangent: Personally, I feel like it's a cheap shot to chunk a bunch of reds and one-shot someone -- it's different from using a limited power like Build Up, and feels like an "exploit" -- but that's just me. I suppose a tank can chunk a bunch of purples to counter it, so it goes both ways, but it still feels cheap.

Original Poster:
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Does this just seem off to anyone else? Its either the rewarding, or the prices, but DOs and SOs are nigh impossible to come by in CoV.


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Yeah, my feeling is that good stuff drops less, and I'm not getting as much for my drops as I used to.

My level 18 stalker only can afford a few level 20 enh and the rest are all 15 and ready to go down the tubes as soon as I level again.

This isn't just in CoV but in CoH as well. My level 42 toon used to get SO drops all the time... and yesterday all I pulled in was a bunch of TRAINING enh plus a few DOs... and I don't think I'm getting as much for them either at the specialty shops.

What gives? (Talk about being kicked when you're already down...)

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- LOTS of typos and grammatical errors. I'm clearly not a master of this, but some the errors are VERY obvious.

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Not an excuse at all, but I work in tech writing and unless there's a stringent copyedit process on hardcopy, you'd be amazed at what gets through...

For example, did you notice your own typo in your own criticism? That irony is one reason I'm posting, it made me laugh (good-naturedly).

That being said, NCSoft would benefit from spending a little time on the proofing process. (Usually it gets left as an afterthought, since accurate, working code is prioritized over documentation.)

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So I've seen the "I don't want to PvP" vs. "Its a PvP zone, don't enter it if you don't want to" endless back and forth. I'm going to say my peace on this issue.

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Reaction understandable, I've had a few kneejerk reactions of my own.

Not sure why the discussion is continuing, though. The facts seem clear: There was a misunderstanding that upset you, so you mentioned it on the boards, and some people set you straight (some very kindly).

Whether or not the devs should be more explicit, I suppose, is a point that can be brought up (although a little personal effort would have resolved the issue, as well as examining how other zones like the Hollows have worked in the past), but I'm not sure why it's becoming the center of a heated debate.

Is the goal to have fun playing the game and resolve what confusion might hinder it, or has this now become about winning an argument? (open question to the floor)

The latter just isn't much fun.

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I mean, really. I've never even eaten a baby once.

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Not even once? Aren't you curious?

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*burp* [hints of Shel Silverstein]

They're quite good with honey mustard and just a DAB of horseradish sauce.

(But make sure they're changed first. Otherwise they taste like... well, you know.)

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I find that as I level more and more it gets harder not to AS those lone bosses you see outside on your way to your missions. I guess this would be a kin to the whole brutes got to smash everything in site thing. I think 1 shotting a boss outside of a mission is like greatest rush to me. The sad part about it is I know that if I miss this hit and try to scrap I know I am good as dead but yet I still AS anyways.

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I have a hoot doing that as I travel from and to missions... always looking around for anything up to a red boss that I can drop along the way. Sometimes if I see something in a spawn, I'll drop it, then run like crazy. It's great freebie XP.

And sometimes I can "clean" up a fight between mobs where both are damaged. I don't get as much XP, but they fall quick and I don't take much damage, so it's still freebie XP to me.

It's probably the funnest part about being a Stalker (short of AS'ing the mission boss, so he never even gets to take a swing at me).

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Just want to let people know that an I6/ED version should be here by the end of next week. Just need to pry myself away from CoV long enough to type it all out and format.

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Cool. I found your guide one of the most valuable Emp guides out there and appreciate hearing your ideas on I6.

(I'm frustrated and hoping someone has insight on how to improve Emp solo capability.)

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Hee hee! My scrapper had that Clock king mish for weeks before I could find a team who would help.

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Which is funny, because I've done it twice now as an Emp def in the last month or so.

The first time I didn't know what I was getting myself into, didn't even know what the mission was until we attacked the King. (That's what I get for SK'ing up on a pickup team.) I never died, but boy did I work my butt off keeping everyone alive.

The second time, I knew what I was getting into, was playing with a team I knew well, and I think I died 2-3 times.

What was that about how Emps and alpha strikes don't mix? Yeah. It's true.

(Not to mention getting picked off in the air when I thought I was way out of range.)

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There was another post by the developer of the program. He acknowledges that powers are incorrect because he doesn't have experience with every power at every level.

There should be contact information in the planner so you can provide updated information.

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Actually, there was some discussion in the community over this -- it would be very difficult for Joe to have to do everything himself, so a grassroots effort was considering having different people take responsibility for a particular powerset or AT, then feed Joe good data.

One guy doing all this (software AND data) in his free time is just too much. He needs some help -- and there is always a steady pool of gamers doing the numbers anyway, so it shouldn't be hard.

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The test I did last night seems to show that icicle's damage speed hasn't changed. Also, at level 32 in bricks jumping into the middle of 10-12 council, I believe I was hit once or twice before they all fell (Ice/Axe). Health bar barely moved. Still, the dumbest think in the world is hitting EA to get full defense with my end bar still at max. What a stupid waste of power.

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Pretty much -- too bad I never got to try EA in Issue 4.

The only side benefit I've managed to wrangle out of EA when my end bar is full is that, since I'm an AoE attack Ice/Fire tank, I run Icicles and jump into the spawn, then Build Up, Combustion, and finish with EA (because it cycles in 30 seconds for me).

EA contributes enough damage under Build Up for me to almost take down the whole white spawn with that one attack cycle.

Very good and detailed guides, with good explanations. I appreciate seeing it and agree with many of your observations.

Personally, I have found Regen Aura useful as an "extra" buffer. It cleans up messes that could accumulate into serious damage. (Plus, I don't have Health, so it operates for me in lieu of that, when it's up.) It's not as important as RA or AB or Fort, but it still makes a difference in some situations.

Scramble Thoughts would be useful soloing, as a control power, as you say. As a damage power, it doesn't do much.

Psychic Scream is great for team play, after the tanks and blasters have gone to work -- it doesn't do much comparitively but does contribute useful AoE.

(Um, never use it to snipe though... It's an aggro magnet if no one else is attacking.)

I have four attacks (the snipe, TK Blast, Will Dom, and PsyScream) and do quite well cycling through them with permahasten.

Thanks for the comments on the Psychic nuke, in regards to I5. As the defender, I should be cautious about using up all my END and temporarily kill my End regen as part of an attack. Bummer.

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I like the old series better. So far, I don't like the new one at all. I stopped reading the second issue halfway through. It just couldn't keep my interest.

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To be honest, I don't much like either of them.

The first series had amateur artwork and cheesy dialogue, but admittedly a certain charm from time to time.

The "new" series is professional-quality, but the actual content is boring and hard to care about.

The only thing that even piqued my interest in the slightest was the unexpected twist at the end of Issue #2... but I'm sure that it will all be negated in Issue #3, so what does it matter?

I don't mean to sound negative, simply honest. Maybe the series hasn't been around long enough to "grow into itself" and have the characters properly establish themselves yet. Maybe it just needs more time.

But it's definitely not a highlight of my 25+ years of reading and collecting comic books.

I wonder what J. Michael Stracynzki would do with the series.

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1) Stand with feet shoulder width apart
2) Grasp reality firmly with both hands
3) Twist sharply.

How do the rest of you come up with creative stuff?

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1. Read, view, and examine as much as possible. Creativity, unfortunately, is rarely creating completely "new" ideas; it's more a matter of reassembling what has already been done, and to do that, you need to prime the pump.

2. Go running, driving, walking, hiking, or whatever else puts part of your brain on autopilot; it actually frees up the more creative aspect of your brain to control your thought processes. I get my best ideas when doing these things; unfortunately, by the time I stop, I can't quite get them down on paper.

3. Mixing prescription medicine and tequila might work but is not recommended. (Digesting large amounts of powdered sugar and caffiene is a legal substitute.)

4. Get some sleep.