Samuel_Tow
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Well, that's probably what I'll end up doing, myself, since Viking essentially up and gave me 4 of the 6 set enhancements. Thank you!Originally Posted by Jetpack
I'm nowhere near a Stalker expert, but I put the full Stalker set in my A/S on my new Stalker.
The other two, though expensive, should not be hard to get. That's my attacks settled, then, I suppose. What's left to wonder about is the SR toggles and passives, plus possibly... What do you put in Web Grenade?
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I apologise for dragging this thread back out of forum history, but I have a few more questions to ask on the matter and I'd like to keep all the old, very useful information I got in the same thread just so it's all in one place.
Now, I know I went a long way towards giving Crash a decent, Dark-Astoria-Applicable build, but that never happened. I22 took too long to come out and I got bored of the character spinning her wheels doing nothing. However, it's come around to this time again, and this time I'm using a slightly less "certain" character. Plus, I'm facing a few new aspects of Inventions that didn't exist back when I made this thread, which I might want to explore. First, the questions:
What's an "ATO?" I get that they're Archetype-specific enhancements, even if I wish we'd stop attaching the word "Origin" to every enhancement type, but what are they for? What do they do? Do I even care about them? I checked ParagonWiki and it has a pretty good article on what these are, but there are no articles for the specific enhancements. I don't know if these have superior percentages like Hamidon enhancements do, for instance. And, frankly, the set bonuses they offer don't strike me as that impressive.
What I'm working on right now is a Stalker, but do I want those enhancements for that Stalker? I see that I can get them outside of purchasing them, but their costs just seem prohibitive for what they look like they do. From level 1 to level 49 right now, this Stalker has amassed right around 360 Reward Merits, and I see that even the "cheap" AT enhancements costs 400 merits, so that's VERY expensive for something I don't know if I need.
I could ask about Catalysts and how many of these sets I can use, but I'd probably want to know if I even want the things before I dive any further.
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Next on the list is Enhancement Converters. I managed to somehow avoid ANY discussions about those on the forums, so when I first started seeing the things in my salvage inventory, I didn't know what they were. I've had a few people explain them to me, I read the ParagonWiki article about them, but I still seem to have very little idea about how those work. I get that they convert enhancements into other enhancements, but my question is how much control I have over the process.
For instance, one of the big reasons I don't want to use, say, Mako's Bite is because it has rare and special enhancements in it. Last night, Leo suggested that I could use Enhancement Converters to buy or get a more easily-available set and then transform that into Mako's Bite for the defence set bonuses. So how would that work? How could I, for instance, get a rare Mako's Bite: Accuracy/Damage out of... Say, Crushing Impact: Accuracy/Damage? I assume I'd use the "Convert within Category" conversion that costs two Converters, but what choice would I have to determine the result? The description says "Any other IO of the same level from with its Category regardless of Rarity." but do I get to personally hand-pick which one? That seems a little too good to be true.
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Finally, I'm down to the actual, practical, final question about build in general. If you've seen me post recently, you've probably seen me mention "Kim," my Stalker. I even wrote a story about her. She's a favourite character of mine, she's currently level 49, and she's running about 35% defence against everything. I'm well aware that this is insufficient for Dark Astoria, so I want to know if there's anything I can do about it without reshuffling her build too badly (i.e. without having to take all of Fighting). Specifically, I want to know if it's possible that Enhancement Converters can help me in doing this.
As before, I'd like to stick to level 50 Uncommon Inventions, which means Crushing Impact for single-target attacks, Multi-Strike for the couple of cones and probably a bunch of Red Fortunes for the defences, in case it's not better to just leave them with Commons. I'm also interested to know if the passives and the toggles really benefit from those third defence slots, though I wouldn't want to lose any defence in the process, even a single percent since I have precious little as it is.
The build I have right now isn't great, and it's still all commons, but as before, I'm not looking for perfection. More than anything else, I'm looking for a build that I can be comfortable with making, and a way of making that build that I can feel comfortable repeating for the next level 50 character I make. Apparently, uniqueness of character build doesn't interest me all that much. So long as it works and it's not a pain in the *** to make, I'm happy. Well, and so long as it fits the concept.
Speaking of which, why Challenge on a Stalker? Oh, right, you can't see it. Well, the Mids' build is at the bottom of the post, and it contains Challenge as Kim's level 49 power. Well, it's a power I didn't need to slot, and it fit her cheeky, provocative nature. It was either that or Shuriken, but I couldn't spare five slots for it since I wanted more recharge in Elude. If I can spare the slots and take Shuriken instead without compromising my defences, I probably will, but for the moment, Challenge is not a terribly important power.
That said, here's the build for reference. Please don't judge me too harshly
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.954
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Kim Navar: Level 50 Technology Stalker
Primary Power Set: Dual Blades
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Presence
Ancillary Pool: Weapon Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Slice -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(3), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(5), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 1: Hide -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(40)
Level 2: Ablating Strike -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(7), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(9), Dmg-I(9), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 4: Nimble Slash -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(11), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(13), Dmg-I(13), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 6: Assassin's Blades -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(15), Dmg-I(15), Dmg-I(17), Dmg-I(17), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 8: Focused Fighting -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(19), DefBuff-I(19), DefBuff-I(21)
Level 10: Focused Senses -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(21), DefBuff-I(23), DefBuff-I(23)
Level 12: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), EndRdx-I(27)
Level 18: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 20: Placate -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 22: Vengeful Slice -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(29), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(31), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 24: Dodge -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(40)
Level 26: Sweeping Strike -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(31), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 28: Quickness -- Run-I(A)
Level 30: Agile -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(40)
Level 32: One Thousand Cuts -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(34), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(36), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 35: Evasion -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(37)
Level 38: Elude -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 41: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(42), Heal-I(42), Heal-I(42)
Level 44: Web Grenade -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(45), Immob-I(45)
Level 47: Targeting Drone -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Challenge -- Acc-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(48), Heal-I(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(37), EndMod-I(37)
Level 1: Assassination
Level 4: Ninja Run -
Quote:To be fair, red-side does need at least one new zone, just because it has so few I get sick to my head of looking at the same god damn black sand piles in Sharkhead Island. Blue-side may have empty and unused zones, but there are still at least two per level range, and my contacts tend to send me between them so I'm not looking at the same five houses for 10 levels straight.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
I said this when folks were screaming for more zones for redside.
There is such a thing as TOO MANY zones, but City of Villains is nowhere near that. A new zone might make red-side feel a little bit less like Lemmings Earth, as well. Right now, it feels like someone took multiple zones, cut them down to just the basic landmarks and then slammed them together to form one island, so you have a tiny factory, a tiny town, a tiny Arachnos fort, a tiny graveyard, a tiny dig site, a tiny Freakshow fort and a tiny dock all bunched up together in the same island, even though there's enough material there for at least three zones. -
Quote:What is it with the head-grabbing Jackie Chan pic, by the way? I see it all over the 'net and I can't tell when or why it started being used.Originally Posted by Lord_Kalistoh
And they do it with EVERY expansion. I'm in the revamp wagon, but what they do with that game is insane. Learn to play your class, learn builds, get the equipment and 1 year later... scrap all that and start from the beginning because they revamped even the way the class is played.
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On the subject of Dark powers, I feel what they need first and foremost is a new set of choosable custom animations, and possibly better, less smoke-looking effects. Dark is not weak in any of its powersets, but it just looks so bad because it's always such a kludge. Dark Melee may well be the worst offender. It's just using Braw, Flurry, Recall Friend and the standard cast animation, just with smoky tendrils around the arms. I doesn't look like darkness manipulation, it looks like smoke brawling. I honestly feel the set needs to have better-looking Dark effects and it needs to have less-generic, more dark-power-specific animations AS AN OPTION first before we start messing with its mechanics.
That aside, I feel Dark Armour has problems. Those aren't problems that make is weak, they're just problems that make it awkward. Its lack of knockback protection is the most obvious one. I'll never understand this design decision, especially now that you can just out-and-out solve it with a single special enhancement. It's less deadly than it is just annoying. Same with Fiery Aura, in fact.
There's this, and then there's Cloak of Fear. I'm sure it's a good power, but GOOD GOD it doesn't need to cost this much endurance. In a set with seven toggles (pretty much all but Soul Transfer and Dark Regeneration), it's just EVIL to put in a power that costs this much. I get that it's good for to-hit debuffs, but the fear portion in it is crap and I've never had a character who could afford to run it AND run even most of the other toggles. If we're worried about the thing being overpowered if it cost less or did more, um... Yeah, Oppressive Gloom says hi. Last time I played my Dark/Dark Scrapper, it honestly felt like I was cheating because most of the time I fought enemies who weren't fighting back. Yeah, it's just minions, I know, but even at "more enemies" difficulties, that's still the bulk of what I fight.
So, yeah, Dark Melee and Dark Armour are pretty good sets, I just feel they suffer from a few debilitating old Geko decisions that never got addressed. -
Quote:Yes it is. You can keep saying this till the cowgirls come how, but it won't make it true.City of Heroes stands for more than the narrowest definition of silver-age American comic books, and to use comic books as a LIMITING factor in the first place is just missing the whole point. This is not a game about genres or styles, it's a game about imagination and opportunity. We play in a fictional world where quite literally anything goes if you can explain it, and I can explain this.Originally Posted by Bad_Influence
Its just not thematically correct for a superhero-themed MMO.
Furthermore, what do you care if I have access to better animal parts? You won't be buying that set, you won't be using that set, and if you want to argue that you'll be "bothered" by seeing ME use a set that I like and make characters that I like, then this is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. -
What taunt aura does Energy Aura have?
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So you're still able to post? Sweet! That's good to hear. I hope you retain this ability, Viking. I don't know if I helped any, but I'm glad you seem to have that problem sorted
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Quote:You should have tried searching for "wrist-mounted dog launcher."Originally Posted by Ironblade
I tried Googling "dog launcher" but that only got devices to launch balls for dogs to chase. Surprisingly, searching on "dogapult" gave better results.
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Quote:Well, it's this kind of attitude that makes me wish it would happen even more, and which motivates me to support those who want it to happen.Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven
That is... the height of ridiculous. I hope nothing like that ever happens in this game.
So, Leo, you want sword-biting dogs? OK, I'm with you on that
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Pardon my English, but this is excitement talking:
I WANT THOSE TATTOOS! I couldn't give a rat's *** about anything else as long as I get those tattoos. I would, as a point of fact, KILL to get those tattoos on a fair few of my female characters. -
Quote:Yes, but I meant more the specifics. It turns out that though Viking had disabled his router, his modem had "router capabilities" and had its own software running in the background, which included an undocumented web accelerator. He says he's spoken with his ISP and they never mentioned this. Why this is the case between multiple locations we're still not sure, but Viking said he'll investigate whether the other locations don't have one of those installed, as well.Originally Posted by Texas Justice
So it's basically what Father Xmas said?
That's what I was referring to as an explanation.
All of this is still theory until we see Viking post again today, though. Last time he got access to the forums, it lasted all of a day and he was back to the same old problem, so I'm not counting this as a success until it's proven to last. -
Quote:I'm right there with the Zombie Man. I couldn't give a crap about outdoor zone population even if I had a crap to give, because this contributes nothing to my gameplay experience. Other players currying about in zones are just background noise and functionally indistinguishable from NPCs, aside from the few times they get in my way. I'm not sure when MMOs stopped doing this, but the idea that you'd interact with people you randomly ran across, make friends and go do something together was never at the heart of City of Heroes.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
I go through full zones all the time, like Atlas Park... and they might as well be empty for me. I don't interact with the other people training up or selling or running in circles simple because they're (virtually) next to me. They're not the folk who will be on my next mission or TF or Trial.
The zones are not the "melting pot" of the game where people meet, banter and for teams. That's what Global channels and, if they ever add a server-wide LFT channel - what that'll be for. In the age of global communication, it's only natural that people would meet through chat and not by physically running into each other, and yes, I mean that for in-game.
Zones are pretty to look at, zones are cool to fight in and zones are great for setting the mood and providing a fitting atmosphere. Zones, however, don't need random players running about them to do any of that. -
Quote:Well, that's the stigma. As I said, it wasn't entirely deserve, but it wasn't entirely made-up, either. I've seen Stalkers kicked from teams, I've seen Stalkers refused team spots and I've seen Stalkers made to justify how they were helping. And it wasn't always bad Stalkers, either.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Well we're a far cry from "Stalkers were blacksheep and only got pity spots because they were seen as not contributing much because they [blanket statement] WEREN'T!"
To offer a counter-point, I have a friend who played a Stalker since I6. To him, Stalkers were great. When the first round of changes hit, he thought they weren't needed, and he got his own Stalker to 50 just fine. Here's the thing, though: Even though he was confident in his own Stalker, when teaming with pretty much any of my Brutes (except my Stone/Stone one, HAAATE!), even he would comment that I was matching his damage. And remember - this was I6, so no Brute Fury changes.
Sadly, Markus left the game four years ago, if not more, so I haven't been able to get his own input on the changes, but he had a LOT more tolerance for performance than I ever did.
I'm not sure what you mean, but...Quote:Originally Posted by Leo_G
That is to say, we're basically gauging run-of-the-mill Scrappers as weak when practically any Scrapper is decent-to-great. That must mean Stalkers were decent-to-great...or am I not adding this up right?
I don't consider teaming to be a competition. It's really not a question of who contributes the most or the least, so much as a question of gaps. And something that keeps getting lost in the shuffle is I don't believe Stalkers were necessarily contributing that much less total, so much as I feel they were working their ***** off just to break even on contribution. To me, that's simply not fair. It's not fair that I have to work twice as hard just to match the performance of someone simply mashing buttons. If I HAVE mind Hide and I HAVE to mind Assassin's Strike and I HAVE to time Placate and I HAVE to keep my fingers crossed the game doesn't throw up on me and even then basically break even, I feel cheated.
Scrappers aren't worth less now, I don't think, but Scrappers are worth what they are for a LOT less effort. When playing a Scrapper, you really can't mess up, other than getting yourself killed. But provided you don't die, there really is very little you can do wrong as a Scrapper. Pick an enemy, hit him until he falls down, pick another enemy, repeat and don't get dead.
A Stalker, by contrast, can do a LOT of things wrong. He can mess up his hidden Assassin's Strike if he still uses that He can have his Hide busted because someone attacked too early. He can have his Placate critical messed up because a minion from across the room shot him, or because he had Caltrops tossed at his feet. He can miss his Focus critical because he couldn't tab to an applicable enemy fast enough, or he might not even achieve Focus because he didn't use the right attacks, or because the game didn't feel like triggering Focus off the attacks he did. He can placate the wrong enemy and waste the "can't target" effect, or he can placate the wrong enemy and have that enemy turn around to one-shot the nearby Blaster. There was a lot a Stalker stood to do wrong, and there is even more a Stalker can do wrong now. To me, it's simply not fair that a character walking on eggshells so much should barely match the performance of one who barely even needs any user input.
THAT is why I feel Stalkers were "wronged" before the changes. Their performance wasn't terrible... I don't think it was ever GREAT, but it wasn't terrible. But their performance also came at a cost much higher than either Brutes or Scrappers had to pay. Now Stalkers are just as difficult to play, even more so, but the results they generate are well worth the complexity. -
Quote:Animals fighting like animals would anatomically fight I really have no problem with. It looks natural when a cat or a dog or a bear does it, so I see no reason why it wouldn't look natural for a super-hero cat or dog or bear or so forth.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Animals are faster and can be more flexible in their body movements. I'd imagine a dog/cat in melee would look something like Blanca from Shadow Hearts II. Claws attacks would be simple slashes and bites but he also had acrobatic and dynamic moves that used the whole body, even leaping in the air and doing backflips to knock foes up.
This, though, is kind of where I just don't "get" it, in the sense that I can't imagine that working. If you're determined to make animals that act like animals, i.e. that they have no hands capable of holding weapons, then you can't really go with conventional weapons, just because most of those are designed to be held in a hand and wielded by a hand.Quote:Originally Posted by Leo_G
No, I wouldn't imagine a dog simply swinging his neck to slash at a foe with a sword in his mouth. The dog would lunge and turn their whole body (reminiscent of chasing their tail) to get that cut.
If we want to replicate weapon sets, then I'd say we really need to figure out ways to mount those weapons on the animal in such a way that it makes sense for that animal to use them in a more natural way than just tossing a dog a katana. I could go as far as to say that not all animals might be appropriate to all weapons. A cat or a dog might be appropriate for claw-like weapons as those are typically short and can be depicted by slashing with the paws, but what about piercing weapons?
Well... There are animals who already have piercing weapons in nature, such as Rhinos, Elephants and so forth. I could easily see one of those with bladed horns or tusks using attacks similar to a sword user. In fact, rhinos specifically have a fairly large range of motion on their necks, allowing them to thrust, swing and cleave if they're given a bladed horn long enough. It might still look goofy, but at least less outlandish.
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To be perfectly honest, if we're ever going to see player-controlled animals, I'd rather they came as some sort of a shape-shifter AT like what Kheldians get, only more generic. I'm not sure how that might work to avoid the Kheldian problem of having a zillion powers AND powers in the forms to worry about, but to me, that's the best case scenario. In these cases, the animals can be restricted to animations and powers that are more natural to the animal, they'll be easier to produce and they won't require the redoing of all combat animations. -
Well, the Soviets experimented with anti-tank dogs, but I don't think players would like that sort of powerset very much.
Other than that, you hit the nail on the head - how would a dog (or a cat or a bear) use a weapon in a way that appears practical? I know the trickery of video game special effects can make a lot of thing seem plausible when they really aren't (that's every attack in Dual Pistols, for instance), but I honestly lack the imagination to even picture this concept. Still images are easy enough to make, but it's the idea in motion where my brain draws a blank. -
Quote:I never said that. Even back in I6, Stalkers still contributed to the team, I never questioned this. The question was how much. And from playing one and from teaming with one, it never struck me as being as much as an even run-of-the-mill Scrapper. Maybe I just didn't run into any exceptional Stalkers, that's possible, but I ran into plenty of pretty good Scrappers and a LOT of really good Brutes.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Now prove that Stalkers were tantamount to a waste of space before.
You run into the opposite end of the spectrum, if that's what you want to argue - Stalkers measured up, but took a lot more effort and knowledge to do it. It doesn't seem to me like they did, but I'll take your word for it. But that's just Defiance 1.0 all over again - the few who managed to use it excelled and everyone who didn't manage to use it died trying to stay low on health.
Stalkers aren't necessarily easier to play now, they're just easier to play at a moderate level of performance.
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On a side note, I'm not sure if Stalkers deal more damage than Scrappers, now, but I assume they do. As you say, it's trivial to prove, I just haven't run the numbers. I guess that's what sent Johnny Butane on a crusade that has nothing to do with with the subject. -
Quote:That's what I mean - this would make more sense in terms of what something with a dog's body shape could do and still look good doing it. But then you run into the problem of being unable to reuse any of the existing assets, and that's very unlikely to happen.Originally Posted by Coyote_Seven
Maybe it would make more sense though to have something like metal claws on their front paws?
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On topic: I honestly find dogs with swords in their mouths just very goofy. I don't so much find the concept implausible as I have a hard time accepting the mechanics behind it. A human with a sword in hand looks good because the human hand is capable of performing a wide swing arc - it has a great range of motion. A dog's head has nowhere near the same range of motion, thus a dog with a katana held in its mouth sideways just doesn't feel like it has the same "oomph" behind it. I've often said that melee weapons often just need to be longer to look bigger, because that makes their swings appear to hit harder.
Dogs and melee weapons, to my mind at least, don't really mix, at least no in a way that's anatomically logical for a dog to wield them. Dogs and other powersets, though, that I could see. I have no problem with a dog spitting missiles or having chainguns mounted on its back. None of that stuff relies on physics that just look plain wrong. -
Quote:It IS based on feel. Everything I've said so far is based almost entirely on feel and almost not at all on actual numbers. Sadly, "feel" is how I operate in most things and that's what I remember. Sometimes my feelings can be tainted, but over the years, I've learned to trust them because they show me things I can't always put into words.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Everything else is based on feel. You can't see feelings.
For instance, if you'll allow me a slight aside, the way I decide which attacks to use when is based on "want." In certain situations, there are certain attacks I've grown to "want" to use because my mind has concluded they're potent based on direct experience. That's how I learn. Take, for instance, Sweeping Strike. It's the start of Stalker DB Weaken combo, it's a very powerful cone attack and it's really fast. This makes it a good attack in my mind, and almost every time I don't know what to use, that's what my brain "wants" me to use.
The thing is, though, that the more I played pre-I22 Stalkers, the less I "wanted" to play them and the less I "wanted" to make more of them. The more I teamed with them, the less I actually "wanted" to team because it simply highlighted how much better everyone else was performing. This is something I've never felt while playing any other AT, with the exception of Blasters, and Blasters I stopped playing for exactly this reason.
Ever since I22 launched, I haven't felt that. I teamed with Kim, both with you and on TFs and with other people, I played her alone and sent her through a variety of pretty nasty missions, and that old feeling of being underwhelmed with my character is just GONE. Nowhere to be found.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that I don't depend on Hide so much. If I can pull off a hidden Assassin's Strike, I will. If I can't, I have other tools, as well. This makes me feel a LOT better on a rushing team that won't let me re-hide, it makes me feel a lot better when fighting the Rikti and it make me feel slightly less bad when a Hidden Assassin's Strike misses.
Yes, it's based on "feel," but Stalkers used to feel very bad, and now they feel very good. -
Quote:And where the giant pitfalls are, I'd imagineOriginally Posted by Coyote_Seven
I might as well own up to the fact that I actively participated in Furry fandom from 1994 to 2001, and I've kept close tabs with it since. So I think I got a pretty good idea what it's about.
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I'd be happy with more weapons at all, irrespective of what purchase they're attached to. Weapon customization is something that's REALLY under-represented in this game, and I honestly can't understand why that is. We get full costume set after full costume set, but barely ever do we get an errant weapon or two, and usually for just one weapon type that never happens to be one of the less populated ones. Like Pulse Rifle.
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Quote:I do, actually. That's a subject matter where one must have some degree of standards and some degree of selectiveness, granted, but it's not as bad as SomethingAwful would have people at large believe.Originally Posted by Coyote_Seven
You know not the horror that you would unleash upon an unsuspecting world!
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Quote:Not entirely deserved, I'll grant you that much, but it was still not entirely undeserved, either. Every member on the team with an awake player at the keyboard is at least contributing SOMETHING, but my point is that what a Stalker was contributing was visibly less than even a comparative Scrapper could pull off. At least, that's what I got from experience. I played a lot of Stalkers, I played a lot of Scrappers, I played a lot of Brutes. I'm not counting Masterminds since those are their own can of worms.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Hell, the whole crusade before the buff was to get *rid* of the stigma that Stalkers were bad, a stigma they lived with since their inception. Stalkers do not deserve that stigma after they got demoralize, a base crit chance, a scaling crit chance and more HP. Yes, the stigma was there but it was *NOT* deserved at that point.
However, between Brutes, Stalkers and Scrappers, Stalkers always left me feeling I tried the hardest and achieved the least, especially on a team. I can't tell you how many times I had my Assassin's Strike ruined because someone caught aggro and I got an autohit Hurricane to the face, or someone attacked and wonky aggro mechanics made a minion shoot me before I did anything.
Before the changes, I could NEVER get a Stalker scrapping out of hide to reach anywhere near the performance of a Scrapper, on a team or solo. I could sort of make that up between Assassin's Strike and Placate, but at best this could just about get me to break even with my Scrappers, and at worst - if the game hated me - I just trailed far behind. It was getting to the point where I was physically incapable of making more Stalkers because I felt I was humiliating my characters by creating them in that AT.
Those are my experiences and you CANNOT argue with them. You can argue whether they're representative, that's fine. I know I don't speak for everybody. But what you cannot argue is that they didn't happen, because they did. If you want to call me a liar about it, then go ahead, but I assure that that'll be the last time I take it on the chin. This happened to me. That's my experience.
After the I22 changes, though? I've been having the time of my life. At no point has it ever felt like my Stalker is under-performing, at no point has it felt like I'm wasting my time, at no point has it felt like I could do twice as well for half the effort with another AT. I call that a success. Granted, it's a success at the cost of changing the AT significantly, but what's done is done.
I don't feel the need to exaggerate to justify the change. If you remember my long argument for why I no longer play Blasters and why I deleted all of my level 50 Blasters and remade them as other ATs, I was just on the verge of having one of those for Stalkers. I was THIS close to simply going through my list, deleting all my Stalkers and rerolling them as Scrappers and Brutes. Then I started hearing news of Stalker improvements, I held off on that decision, and I'm glad I did, because the performance problems which had originally made me consider deleting all my Stalkers are gone now. Whether you choose to believe it or not, that's what happened. -
Quote:I think the line is more in terms of what you're using to generate that power. If it's a machine, it's Technology. If it's your own body changed in some way, it's Science. The Fantastic Four, for instance, would be considered Science here even though technology wasn't involved in the origin of their powers. They got zapped by cosmic rays, technology just took them to where the cosmic rays were. The Hulk is similar to this - he was zapped by technology-produced radiation, but his powers are not technology-related. They come from the phisiochemistry of his own body. That's science.Originally Posted by Jeuraud
The line for me between Tech and Science is whether the outcome fell within expected results or not. Both origins require an intermix of tech and science. For me it would be Tech only if putting the brain into the robot was meant to manifest powers. If on the other hand the powers was a side affect of being put into the robot body, then the abilities would be Science. To further this, if through scientific research, this manifestation of powers was found to be reproducible, and others produced, then the others produced would be Tech.
Now, when you start talking about powers that "came about" because of a technological transformation, you're walking into double origins and trying to judge which is more important. For instance, Metronome is Mutation on the one hand because that's where his ability to possess Clockwork comes from, but Technology on the other because the Clockwork which are his actual power are a piece of technology. Then you're faced with trying to decide if it's more important that he can possess technology of it it's more important that there's technology to posses, and there's really no right answer.
Yeah, that's what I mean. He's a smart guy, and a good guy to boot, but within a super hero context, that IS an un-special loser. He has no abnormal super-human powers, thus there's nothing about him which makes him more fit to be a super hero than any other smart, good guy. What makes him special is the spider bite which gives him the powers to make his smarts and his good nature mean something.Quote:Originally Posted by Jeuraud
Brilliant, Parker excels in applied science, chemistry, and physics. The character was originally conceived by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as intellectually gifted, but not a genius. However, later writers have depicted the character as a genius.
Now, as before, you can argue that it's his inventions or his ingenuity or so forth that are his real strength, thus why he'd be something different, but I feel by far the strongest contender is still Science. Much of what Spider-Man does is based on his strength, speed and ability to cling to walls, and those come from the spider.
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I should point out that being defined by having super powers essentially granted to you doesn't make you a less deserving super hero, because a super hero is defined as much by what he does with his powers as what those powers actually are. I'm not saying Spider-Man is somehow less deserving because he got his powers by accident, just that I don't believe there was anything special about him which made him "deserve" those powers more than anyone else. Hence, I don't see a strong argument for Mutation. -
Quote:Do you not see what you're doing? You're essentially telling me my experience with Stalkers never happened. Either I'm lying or I don't know what happened to me. Neither of those is true.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Then don't speak of things you're ignorant of.
What I said happened. Maybe not to you, but it happened to me.