Ryuuk

Yep!

I hadn't really played a tank in a long time, I've always loved Ice Armor though. So last week I got an idea in my head, how early can I cap an Ice Tank all the time, without relying on EA or on some crazy low level IO slotting? Some fiddling in Mids and my answer was 27, although it did include one non-standard IO, the Steadfast +def. Not necessarily the fastest answer, but it worked out on paper. Of course I am talking about S/L/E/N only.

So I did it! Rolled him, hit 27, saw that beautiful 45.07%, and filled with immense pleasure at accomplishing my goal. I'm feeling pretty damn tough, and CE gives me solid aggro control for now (although I plan to pick up Taunt at 30). That said, I have endurance for about 10 seconds at a time, with only 2 attacks (SP and Smite). Just hit 28 and picked up EA, so that'll help with end some.

So now I need to decide what to do with the rest of my build. I did throw something to 50 together in Mids, but it doesn't really have much direction. My general goal is to be as strong at tanking as possible, including survival and aggro control. Whatever damage-dealing I can squeeze in I would consider a bonus. Right now I got to the cap through brute force power selection lol, which is to say Weave, CJ, and Maneuvers. I'm certainly not married to it. My only requirement is capped S/L/E/N 24/7. I can't stand taking an alpha at less, god forbid being under cap in an av fight because he's the only thing EA is hitting.

So, suggestions? Regen, rech, resist? I'm not looking to spend an insane amount of money (although if the build is juicy enough, I can). Something in the 200m-1b range would be good. Either general advice or specific builds are welcome. Thanks in advance.

The answers given by Fleeting Whisper and Sliverado are contradictory. FW's states that -damage functions the same as -resistance in that it is always resisted by the base resistance value(even if that value is currently lower or higher due to buff/debuff) and Silverado's answer assumes the opposite.

Assuming FW is right, the answer to my hypothetical would be:

75 Smashing
87.5 Lethal
62.5 Fire

Obviously I would prefer Silverado's answer to be correct! If this is the case I will run, not walk, to the character select screen to roll a Rad/Sonic Defender.

I was looking at paragonwiki's page on Archvillains, and it states the following:

"Archvillains are also noteworthy for having strong debuff resistance that scales by level. As of Issue 9, this resistance applies to -RunSpeed, -Recharge, -Endurance, -ToHit, -Defense, -Perception, -Regeneration, and -Recovery."

What interested me is that -damage and -resistance are not listed there(assuming there have been no changes since issue 9). I understand that -resistance is a function of resistance itself(and the wiki's resistance mechanics page is clear as to how this works), and I believe -damage is also handled by resistance, but I am unsure of how it specifically plays out. There is a sentence in the wiki explanation of resistance mechanics which at the heart of my question:

"It's also important to remember that stacked resistance debuffs always use the undebuffed resistance value when calculating resistance. This way there can be no cascading resistance failures."

What I would like to know is if that also applies to -damage(assuming I am right in that it is also resisted by resistance to each damage type).

So, for example, I am using EF on an even level AV(or any mob) which causes -30% resistance and -25% damage. the AV has 0% Smashing resist, 50% lethal resist and -50% Fire resist. They have 3 attacks which do 100 damage each, one Smashing, one Lethal, one Fire. While EF is on, how much damage would each of the attacks do? Clarification - I don't know if EF applies these debuffs "simultaneously", meaing -res would not affect -dmg, but for the purposes of the question you can assume that there is an existing -res power and then a -dmg power is applied, if necessary.

I hope the question is clear, the game terminology used doesn't help much:P Thanks in advance.

I believe the point is that there won't be any/many redside farmers left(or much of anyone else for that matter). I'm certainly planning on moving.

qr

Rewards for various activities in the game, performed by different ATs/powersets, are completely unbalanced all around. In this case I'm defining rewards as "anything which can be used to get IOs," including recipes(either used directly or sold), inf(used to buy recipes to make or crafted enhancements) and salvage(sold or used to make enhancements). This assumes usage of the market but not necessarily any kind of marketeering.

IMO there are two main types of activity in the game, as far as rewards are concerned. Solo farming on a character who is very good at it, and everything else. If I am really wanting to earn rewards, I will solo farm. There is no comparison between the rate at which I can earn purple drops(and the subsequent inf they will sell for) versus earning merits. What's the best-case scenario for merit earning, like one per minute or slightly higher?

Merits used for rolls (as opposed to buying recipes outright) can result in a higher earning rate than farming, but it's much more random. Buying recipes outright is extremely inefficient from an earning standpoint with only one advantage, it guarantees you can get what you want. As a rule I do not consider this advantage worth the tradeoff.

So I have a choice, content that is more fun and engaging(TFs/arcs, team play) or solo farming for purples. Also, the fact that desirable recipes cost so many merits runs counter to weighted drops. I wish this weren't the case. I prefer doing team-oriented content with as much variety as this game can muster. So I have to decide which is more important at any given time, my ability to improve characters(for future fun), or my current fun.

Obviously if the devs wanted to correct this, they have two choices, both of which are probably pretty bad and/or impossible to get right. Increase rewards for "normal" activity to make it competitive with farming, or nerf rewards for farming. This is not a new thought or argument at all, but from my perspective the entire question of merit rewards is immaterial if there exists another activity which blows it out of the water.

That's a nice-looking build, especially the recharge. I'm trying to figure a way to buff the aoe def some, hopefully without losing much or any recharge but I'm realistic. One thing which might sound a little peculiar is that I could not really care less about any attacks other than LR and SC. If you have any experience with the set, do you know if LR/SC+Fireball is enough to kill even(50) minions and lts? Normally on my Brute I use BU and then both LR and SC for each group, but it'd be nice if I could make it go even faster on this guy. Thanks!

Since this topic is rolling I won't create a new one, but I'm looking for a blue farmer that's very very easy to play (I'm lazy when farming), and reasonably effective on a modest budget (I can earn cash now, but it's a bit slower than I'd like). I have an Elec/SD Brute that works beautifully without any investment at all (use Darkest Night to cap). I expect to farm demons. Would Elec/SD (probably the mid-range build above) be the best choice blue as well? Once I got capped it seems even easier then my Brute, since demons don't have -def, and Scrapper LR/SC do more damage, right?

The only thing I can see with really serious synergy would be SoAs, -40% toxic res on venom grenade...

Thanks for the quick responses, that clears it all up.

I think I know how basic drop mechanics work. If something dies it has random chance to generate enhancements, recipes, etc. and if a team killed it it randomly goes to a member. What can be generated is determined on the mob end, not the player end. Purples are a bit different though, in that as far as I know they only drop for lvl 50 characters. My basic question is, does it work the same in that it checks to see if a purple drops, and then assigns it to a valid team member? If so, it would obviously have the effect of giving 50s a reason to farm with lower lvl toons who can't receive purples. Alternatively, it could assign a recipe drop to a player, and then determine what it is, which would be everything it normally drops, and if the character is a 50 add purples to the drop table.

Does anyone know exactly how the drop mechanics work? Thanks in advance. For what it's worth, if they work like I hope, I'd be more than happy to help other people level and increase my rate of earning purples at the same time, heh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto_...te_Ninja_Storm

see you and raise you

According to Combat Attributes, both nova and dwarf consume .26 end/sec but also provide that much in additional end recovery. So does it make more sense to slot them for endmod or endrdx? I just did some calculation and it looks like if I slot lvl 35 (highest I can slot currently) endrdx it'll save me .7 end/sec, but if i slot endmod it'll provide an additional .9 end/sec, so I guess endmod is the way to go. Anything I'm missing?