Rodion
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Posts
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Joined
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I like your build, though the accuracy and damage on your single-target blasts may be a bit low. You might want to move two slots from Health and add a Thunderstrike: Acc/Dam/Recharge to Power Burst and Power Bolt or Blast.
I made a similar build for an Ice/Ice/Cold blaster that softcaps S/L without the Fighting pool. It uses a lot of Curtail Speed, one Lethargic Repose, Enfeebled Operation, Neuronic Shutdown and two Kinetic Combat to hit the cap. If anyone wants the build PM me. -
Quote:This isn't even spelled right. The word "чывства" probably intends to be "чувства" but the utterance is still downright awful. "чывства" cannot appear in Russian because "ы" can never follow "ч" or several other letters such as г, к, щ and ш. When the Cyrillic alphabet is used for languages such as Kirgiz, however, the rule no longer applies, as Kirgizstan is spelled "Кыргызстан".Originally Posted by Schismatrix
You use online translation tools like Yahoo!'s Babelfish to translate and then copy and paste it into your bind or macro. Arabic is not an option at Babelfish, but Korean, Japanese and several flavors of Chinese are usable.
"Feel pain." in:
Russian: Боль чывства.
The translations provided by Babelfish are mostly worthless. They do not process most idioms correctly and do an extremely poor job of disambiguating homonyms.
Also, these translators don't do a good job unless you express yourself more precisely. For example, Babelfish emits the completely incorrect "боль чывства" if you enter "feel pain," but if you enter "Suffer pain" you get a somewhat more idiomatic "Вытерпите боль," though that is a perfective command and the intent is probably an ongoing excruciating experience, which would indicate an imperfective command. And it uses the formal/plural form of the verb, and since Spectral Wounds is a single-target power, it would be somewhat like saying, "Suffer pain, sir!" Which may be what you want, but may not.
If you don't care that the utterance is wrong and just want some foreign text for color, don't worry about it. But you'll eventually get some smart alec like me who tells you that it's wrong. If you want to be correct find a native speaker (that you trust) and get the translation from the horse's mouth, so to speak. -
Quote:The game appears to use Unicode internally. These are 16-bit characters, often encoded in variable-length formats such as UTF-8.Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
Note - alt codes can/do vary between OS's
The easiest way to enter text in other alphabets is to find an editor that allows you to do it, then copy and paste it into the chat line when you're making the macro. I've done this with Russian and it works fine. -
Quote:I've got 12 in a Fire/Fire Tanker, and had 8 in a Fire/Ice tanker until recently, but she was getting knocked around by Fakes, so I got another Steadfast. But until that point 8 KB had worked under almost all circumstances up to level 45.Originally Posted by Kioshi
I recommend 12 points of KB protection. My DM/DA does fine with just one IO (4 points) but she's a scrapper, so you'll be surrounded by mobs more often as a Tanker. My scrapper only got KB'ed to the point that annoyed me in the KHTF (which nobody does frequently anymore because it's not a quick way to get a recipe like before).
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AE is not the first insta-leveling exploit that came about. Back in the day the Winter Lords were just about as bad.
The real problem is that the system has no inherent throttle on gaining levels. There is no reasonable case where a character should be able to reach level 50 in one hour, or 10 hours or maybe even 50 hours.
So why not just pick some maximum leveling speed in AE, and cap rewards that exceed it? Then when characters hit the cap, have the system log it and then the devs can investigate the exploit at their leisure.
Then there would be no need to ban anyone, or take away their excessive levels, or release poorly tested patches that have to be rescinded or repatched a few days later.
The devs quickly instituted a cap on ticket drops in AE. A limit on XP and influence seems to be a logical and simple extension that would be easier to implement than the complex set of standard/hard/extreme/custom XP percentages we have now.
And most PLing happens on on standard-content maps where lowbies doorsit and level 50s rampage through critters specifically chosen for an optimized PLing build. When you come right down to it, does it really matter how you get to level 50 if it takes you the same amount of time?
Doorsitting is as much an exploit as any bug in AE -- you can get XP without ever attacking enemies or buffing your team mates -- yet no one seems concerned about plugging that hole. -
As with so many things, the conventional wisdom evolves when underlying technical changes are implemented. In this case, the change is IOs and set bonuses that provide defense.
A little bit of defense is mostly useless. But once you start getting a decent amount, say 30-35%, it's much more worthwhile. And if you can softcap, it's worth a whole lot.
So, back when the only place you could get defense was from Steamy Mist, Combat Jumping, Hover and Maneuvers, it didn't add up to much. But now that you can get decent amounts of ranged and S/L defense from slotting IOs in your powers, it completely changes the picture.
On Storm defenders and /Dark corruptors I have built for ranged defense, nearing the softcap on both. Given that level of defense, the to-hit debuffs from Hurricane and Darkest Night, and the ability of these ATs to keep enemies at range (Hurricane and Tar Patch), increasing ranged defense by a few percent with Steamy Mist or Shadowfall suddenly makes a whole lot more sense. -
I use the auto-complete feature for arcs that are lower level than my character. I team a lot so I wind up out-leveling contacts.
It's better now with the new difficulty settings, but they don't help when you're 10-20 levels higher than the contacts. -
Quote:You guys are pikers I wire-wrapped my first computer on a breadboard. It had an 8080, 1K of RAM, 1K of ROM, an 8250 serial port and a bunch of TTL parts. I had to assemble it with stone knives and bearskins. Oh, and 2.5 kilograms of platinum.Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
Ha. When I got my first Spectrum, it was a quantum leap forward from my first home computer, the ZX81:
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Quote:The problem with Gravity is that its damage is mostly Smash, which is the most-resisted damage type in the game. I've got a Gravity/FF controller and it can solo safely at x4 (only level 41 now, so still don't have a well-slotted set of attacks). Since FF is mostly smash too, it's pretty slow.Originally Posted by LastPhantomZoner
I've heard that Gravity controllers are alright farmers. Obviously not as successful as fire/kins but I hear that in the controller archetype they are 2nd best.
My question is why?
Also, what secondary would you combine it with to try to farm.
I have only played gravity toons up to lvl 20s so I'm not the familiar with them which is why i have these questions.
Thanks, Zoner
The pet makes Gravity a lot safer. If you stand right by the Singularity, critters getting near you will be repelled by it. If you get a lot of ranged defense and then position yourself properly with the pet and surrounding walls and doors, you are pretty much untouchable by melee attacks. The pet also does decent smash damage, but nothing spectacular.
Gravity lacks a good area stun. Wormhole just doesn't cut it, for a whole lot of reasons. It would be okay if the range were longer, or the AoE was larger, or the stun lasted longer, or the KB was less, or it didn't take 2 seconds to take effect (which means mobs can and will run up and hit you before they get teleported away). I can sort of use it solo, but it takes a lot of setup time. It's just too slow and inconvenient on teams.
If you pair Gravity with Rad the -dmg res of Enervating Field improves the effectiveness of the damage. But it would improve the higher damage of a Fire/Rad as well. I don't have a Grav/Kin, but since you often need to close to melee range for Fulcrum Shift, the pet would be rather inconvenient.
If you're looking for speed, Gravity will not do it for you. If you just want to try something other than Fire/Kin, look at Fire/Thermal or Fire/Rad. I also like Illusion, Earth and Mind (Confuse can be a great deal of fun, especially when when you Confuse mobs that heal and buff). -
Quote:The trick for boss-level PPs is to make sure they are held or stunned before you whittle them down to 1/4 hits or so. For this reason (and because of Sappers and Fake Nemeses) I always try to get at least one or two holds or stuns that can stack. I can usually arrange that for most controllers, defenders, corruptors, dominators, etc., and some blasters, tankers and brutes.Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
As you get higher, you might want to turn bosses on/off for specific missions. For instance, I find that the paragon protectors with those tier 9s are so spectacularly annoying (not hard, just annoying).
If you can't stack a mez (which means most scrappers and some tanks and brutes), you have to whittle them down to about 1/4 hits, then hit them with Build Up and your biggest attacks in quick succession. Another alternative for Fire Tankers/Scrappers/Brutes is to get them down to 1/4 hits, then use Build Up or Fiery Embrace, then hit them with Incinerate, then your biggest attack. The Damage over Time will usually be enough to take out Fakes even after they've popped their force field.
A less reliable method is to use Knockback/Knockup attacks at that same point (something like Broadsword's Disembowel), then hit them with your big attacks while they're trying to get up.
The timing is crucial, but once you get it down these enemies are a whole lot less annoying. -
Quote:This is the problem with my arcs. I put allies in for players who can't solo the content. The pets attack all the time, don't buff, and draw aggro to themselves. Players who don't need the help can let the pet pull a Fusionette or just ditch it at the earliest opportunity.Originally Posted by Dispari
Otherwise, the way the system is set up, pets who only attack are DOUBLY penalized by the new exp tax, and a small number of buff/debuff only pets are not affected at all.
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Quote:It's not laziness. It's a question of time and money.Originally Posted by Yomo_Kimyata
I did not like the introduction of MA, much like I did not like the introduction of PvP, namely because it put the burden of content creation on the paying subscribers, and that's just plain lazy.
Authors typically spend months and years to write a novel. Then it takes editors and copy editors and agents months more to whip the novel into final shape. Then you read that novel in two or three hours. Movies are even worse, with literally armies of actors required, hundreds of production people, artists, writers, effects technicians, computer programmers, etc.
Writing story arcs for a game is undoubtedly faster than making a movie, but they share many of the same characteristics. Creating new arcs for the game requires writers and editors, and someone with overall editorial control to make sure continuity in the game's universe is maintained. Then there are art assets that have to be created, including retexturing existing maps, creating whole new maps, and new NPCs. Then new powers for NPCs have to be programmed, and new animations and new sound effects. These are huge undertakings that take many man-years to complete.
Because if they don't add new art, new maps, different looking NPCs and new NPC powers we'd complain that these arcs aren't really new content, they're just recycling the same old stuff with some new words thrown in. We would just say (and some of us have), "We could just write that ourselves in AE!"
And the biggest kick in the head: all the players crank through the new content in the first week or two after release. And they're bored again, complaining about nothing new.
This is why they came up with PvP and AE: the games that work best are the ones that let you entertain yourself, rather than force you to be a passive consumer. -
I don't like it, but they might as well cap XP/Inf like they've capped tickets. In the last year we have seen one exploit after another coming out of AE without any sign of slowing down.
By limiting rewards to some reasonable value no complex XP weighting scheme would be required for critters, so the author's creativity is uninhibited. If someone finds an exploit that allows them to kill something easily, they will be unable to level their characters to 50 in an hour no matter what. In the worst possible case it will be directly comparable to players doorsitting in regular missions while other players PL them.
The caps would be determined by datamining the XP/Inf you'd get on the same map if you were running regular content. Something like this was probably already done for tickets.
The ticket and XP/Inf limit should be displayed for each mission when you're selecting the arc. Players could then decide whether the arc is worth their time, or select their level of difficulty accordingly.
The caps could be waived for Dev's Choice missions and for a new category of arcs that are deemed "exploit free." -
Quote:The -def debuff can be helpful when attacking enemies such as Nemesis. If you've hit them before Vengeance goes off the debuff will still be there and they'll be somewhat easier to hit.Originally Posted by Sailboat
It's worth pointing out that many secondary effects are equally, or even less, effective. Sonic's -res is the Cadillac of secondary effect debuffs, much better than the others, generally speaking. -def isn't so bad if you compare it to, well, anything other than Sonic.
So it's not really that -def is undesirable or sub-par, so much as it's "wow, Sonic's -res debuff is, um, really strong."
But I've played all the blaster/defender/corruptor primaries, and I find Radiation's -def to be the least useful secondary effect.
Part of that is because people usually slot 60% or more accuracy (two SOs worth), and many people with IOs are running at 80% or 90%. So after the lower levels, the def debuff isn't useful the vast majority of the time.
So I'd say the other secondaries are more valuable than -def.
The -to hit debuff from Dark powers can be significant in increasing your survivability. In a way, the debuff is like adding defense to yourself. An extra 10-20% defense is always useful.
The slow debuff from attacks like Ice Blast can also be significant. A 20% recharge reduction can translate into a 20% reduction in incoming damage, especially for mobs that have a few fast-recharging attacks.
And Fire's DoT is probably the most effective secondary effect of all. -
After looking at this on live, it's not at all clear how the experience is affected by allies and battles. I have an arc with Freakshow and a couple of custom bosses in the first mission (#252193).
Running the first mission at level 50 at +1/x3, I got 36,567 or 23,992 inf for level 51 Tank Swiper bosses, and 48,105 or 31,562 for level 52 TS bosses (I ditched the ally and it did not damage the targets in both instances). The mission has one ally and one battle. That's a 34% decline in inf.
These are inf values within the same run of the same mission. I got the higher inf values before and after freeing the ally (though again, I ditched the ally).
Running another arc with all custom enemies (#1573) I got either 26,241 or 29,157 inf for one particular boss at level 51. This mission has only one ally. That's a 10% decline in inf. Again, before and after rescuing the ally.
I created another mission explicitly to test how freeing an ally affects rewards. Without allies I see 40,630 inf for level 51 Tank Swiper bosses. With one ally (yet unfreed) I saw 36,567 inf. I saw the same inf after freeing the ally, and regardless of whether the ally was Pacifist or Aggressive. That's a 10% reduction in rewards, and it was consistent in this mission.
We need some clarification on how this works. Why am I sometimes seeing different values for the same level critter in the same mission? Are you supposed to get more before the ally is freed? Less afterwards? Does proximity to an abandoned ally reduce rewards? Does abandoning an ally increase rewards? Do friendly patrols and battles change the rewards? How much does each ally change the reward by? Why do pacifist allies reduce rewards?
I'm all for eliminating exploits in AE, but I'm not sure this is a very good solution. Allies appear in standard content all the time, and when they attack in standard content you don't take a reward hit. In AE you lose rewards for every hit an ally lands. Now you lose rewards even when the ally isn't buffing you or even fighting, but is standing there waiting to be rescued on level 3 while you're fighting the boss on level 1? That's not right. Especially when the boss is tagged as Pacifist and will never attack anything.
I add battles and allies to missions for color, to impart information and to help squishy characters do missions with the tougher custom critters solo. With these reductions in inf/xp there is less and less motivation for players to run AE missions. And less motivation for authors to make unique and interesting AE missions.
I'm always ready to defend the devs when they fix exploits, but AE is becoming totally schizophrenic. It's either a an exploit-ridden power-leveling tool, or a barren wasteland that gives little reward for fighting the toughest critters in the game.
This scatter-shot approach to normalizing AE experience/influence is not working. -
Quote:AE has been out for a year. This fix could hardly be called jumping the gun.Originally Posted by Hazygreys
Once again it's the devs jumping the gun to fix some farming, meanwhile it effects everyone that had missions in AE with allies. GG devs, maybe one day you can learn to fix one thing without breaking three other things.
Filling missions with allies who only buff you and never attack has been an exploit since the beginning. As long as you can have one ally with no loss of XP, you'll be able to have one buff bot or aggro magnet with no penalty. That's completely reasonable.
An alternative change they could have made would be to disallow allies that have no attacks. That would have been more disruptive to story telling, though, so I think the implemented solution is better.
The problem with all of the these experience limitations, however, is that players have no idea when they select an arc how much experience it's going to give them. This is an overall disincentive to run AE arcs.
I'd suggest that the devs put an XP rating on each arc so that players can tell ahead of time whether an arc gives decent XP. I like a good story as much as the next guy. But I like a good story that gives decent XP even more, and there's no reason you can't have both.
I agree these limitations are annoying, but these AE exploits have real-world consequences that damage the market and the game's reputation, which can ultimately affect the number of players. -
Quote:(Imagine me saying this in my encouraging voice, not my haranguing voice.)Originally Posted by Supernumiphone
I ask because I saved up a billion inf to buy a set of ranged purples, went to bid on them, and based on the last 5 sales it looks like I need closer to 2 billion, maybe more, and that's if I'm patient and lowball.
I usually only use the mez purples since they're relatively cheap and within my range given my lazy marketeering. I knew the purples for attacks went for more, but wow. I'm hoping the prices will drop in coming weeks. If not I'll either have to become a lot more hardcore in my marketeering or just write those purples off as non-options for me.
Alternately, you could play your character and get purple drops, which you can then sell. I just got a tanker to 50, doing standard content solo (Maria Jenkins) at +0/x5, but some missions at +2/x5, +0/x1 and +0/x8 depending on enemy type and mission size. Between level 47 and 50 I got three purples, one per level.
No amount of hardcore marketing will increase the supply of purples. If you want the price of purples to go down, do something to increase the supply (or at least enrich yourself). So many people are bemoaning the price of purples but so few are reducing demand by producing their own.
However, I have to admit that there may be another cause for decreased supply. With I17 comes the ability to attach items (including purple recipes) to your in-game emails, which you can address to your own global in-game email address. I know I'm saving high-value recipes in anticipation of being able to send them to my alts on other servers. I would imagine that many other players are doing the same.
Which may mean that many players will be using their drops on their own characters instead of selling them on the market. Which would mean that it's that much more important to increase your own supply of purples instead of just waiting around for someone else to do it for you. -
.Quote:This isn't an anti-market diatribe; markets are extremely useful and quite essential. However:Originally Posted by Fulmens
(I'm a fan of "farming" the market. You don't actually have to be logged on to make millions.)
If no one actually plays the game and generates items for the market, you have nothing to buy and sell. This is the fallacy of market-only strategies: production is required for you to succeed. If production ceases, you simply bid against each other chasing after fewer and fewer resources.
In some ways this is the problem with the US economy. Years ago we decided that we didn't care if we made cars or electronics or washing machines: let Japan and China and South Korea do that. The moguls decided that "IP" (software, movies, music) and stock and financial markets are the way to go.
Now a great deal of software development is outsourced overseas, much of our entertainment industry is held by foreign companies, China is beginning to do its own R&D and is no longer just a giant factory, and the exotic financial markets we created have blown up in our faces and China is bailing us out.
So, while the easy money may be in marketing, no one has anything if there is no actual production of goods. Which means that marketeers should be encouraging others to play the game and produce goods for them to buy and sell instead of smugly proclaiming how easy it is to get rich on the market and denigrating the very activities that make the marketeers' bloated incomes possible.
Not that I'm accusing Fulmens of doing that
. I'm just saying...
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Quote:Because you can probably already solo a large number of enemy types with a Fire/SS tank already, and you could start earning the big bucks without making any large investment.Originally Posted by Murdok
Why?
If you don't already have them, you should get two or three -KB IOs for your Fire/SS tanker and start running against enemies that do mostly Smash/Lethal damage.
I'd suggest starting out at +0/x4 and see how you do. Then up the numbers until you start having problems. If you use Inspirations correctly you can drastically increase your survivability solo, because they drop constantly. -
Quote:This mechanic could be made to work for Defenders only, so it wouldn't have to be extended to MMs.Originally Posted by rsclark
I can balance out both defender ability to solo and the powerset imbalance with one change - you can target yourself with ally-only abilities. Sure make them have only 1/3 effect so it's not too disgusting, but it helps most exactly those ATs who are worst at the moment. Emp drops from 6 useless powers when solo to 1. FF gets a weak blaster who might be close to the def cap when solo. Several def sets get short duration mez protection.
Only downside is that MMs go from being earthbound demi-gods to immortal death machines.
It doesn't work for many defender sets, however: Trick Arrow, Storm, Traps, Dark Miasma, and Radiation Emission would get nothing (or next to nothing), because they have one or no ally-only buffs.
I proposed something similar: in addition to being able to use a single-target buff on yourself, using a debuff on an enemy would put the opposite of the debuff on yourself. Some Kinetics powers already do a version of this (Siphon Speed speeds you up and slows them down, Siphon Power increases your damage while decreasing their damage, etc.). But that too would benefit different defender sets differently.
The inherent has to benefit all members of the AT equally, and that's pretty much true for all the other AT's inherents. All defenders, however, do not benefit equally from the current Vigilance. Kinetics with Transference get very little. -
Quote:You would think that, but I was on a team with a guy who insisted on not getting SB, and he was running around the purple caves with Super Speed on the whole time.Originally Posted by Local_Man
Personally, I think a lot of the folks who dislike Speed Boost haven't had enough practice with fast running. I suspect (but don't know) that most of those people have either no or very few characters with Super Speed.
Yes, the movement increase is the whole issue. If the movement debuff from Increase Density had the same duration as Speed Boost and was large enough to significantly counteract Speed Boost's increase the problem would be resolved quite nicely.Quote:I have few problems running around in caves with Speed Boost or Super Speed -- but I have a lot of characters with Super Speed. Very few people would complain about SB if it did not have the run speed boost. -
Quote:It can be bad because some players just HATE being speed boosted, especially on maps like the purple caves. Speed Boost is very helpful at lower levels, but at level 50 it's generally not as critical, especially for teams that have experienced players with IOed characters.Originally Posted by Local_Man
Adding Recharge and Recovery to teammates? How can that be bad?
Also, some characters just don't need to be speed boosted (especially high-level melee characters of the WP and Regen persuasion). They have tight attack chains that aren't improved by additional recharge, they have IO bonuses or powers that give them crazy levels of Recovery (Quick Recovery or Power Sink), and they already have Swift and/or Quickness/Lightning Reflexes and don't need (or want) additional movement speed.
I've been on teams where literally no one wants to be speed boosted. And I've been on teams where everyone wants it. And I've been on teams where half the people want it, and complain bitterly if they do/don't get it when they don't/do want it. And I'm supposed to remember which four want it.
While (almost) no one complains when a bubbler gives you an unasked-for bubble, a /Kin will get guff for using (or not using) Speed Boost at some point. For these reasons, it's one of the more annoying buff sets to play, and I can certainly sympathize with someone for omitting Speed Boost from their solo-oriented build. I omitted it from my soft-capped S/L solo corruptor build, but have it on my team-oriented build.
Most of my melee characters aren't helped by Speed Boost (they don't have many long-recharge powers), and the increased run speed can be annoying on cave maps and in small areas.
But ranged characters are another story: they have a fair number of long-recharge powers (area holds and AoE blasts) and often have Hover -- and speed-boosted Hover is sweet! -
You are essentially asking "Why are some players rude and inconsiderate?" It is one of the great mysteries of the universe.
The only thing that really matters in playing a game is that you have fun doing it. When you find guys that you don't mesh well with, politely leave at the end of the mission.
Eventually you'll find someone who likes to play the way you do: friend them or join their SG. Also, different servers have different kinds of players. You may find a group of low-key players more to your liking on another server. -
Quote:The reduced income part doesn't necessarily follow. Because items are bought by individuals, specific players may be drastically increasing their playing time and income while overall income and playing time is decreasing.Originally Posted by Ironblade
You assume too much.
Reduced play time would result in reduced supply *AND* reduced income with which to buy things.
Also, players who play certain ways can have drastically larger incomes than players who run other content for the same amount of time. For example, players with lots of AoE attacks can farm purples very efficiently by running standard level 50 content at -1/x8. Their earning potential is thousands of times greater than someone spending the same amount of time running level 15 content.
When you have a few extremely wealthy individuals bidding for a smaller pool of rare items, the price goes way up.
But, as you say, we don't really know what's going on because we don't really have any first-hand knowledge of actual playing time. However, past experience indicates that when a new issue is in beta testing many players are either on Training Room, or taking a break from the game because the new release is coming soon and they want to be rarin' to go when it drops. -
Quote:Wow, someone else who used PLATO! Were you at CERL, one of the universities connected to CERL, or Control Data?Originally Posted by Gaming_Glen
Here's a little history lesson on a forerunner for some of the computer utilities you use today: (search "plato (computer system)", or
Have you begun pining for 60-bit words, 6-bit characters, shift codes, commons, file parts, and ECS?