Selah

Hi everyone, thanks for the warm welcome

and Johnny, my first global is just @Selah, no 1 at the end.

i'm no expert for the AT, much less either set, but i've pvp'd with my friend extensively, and observed several of his matches too. he has tp foe, and his major use of Gang War (aside from the dmg aspect) is to help block people in. tp foe into a corner, with GW waiting, then use a black scorpion web nade so they can't jump, debuff with NB and then wail on them. GW is basically a living, attacking, wall of people. it has it's uses, but you gotta get creative with it. he said he wouldn't dare drop it. hope this helps .

well, i don't think he did any testing with recharge rates of the thugs/enforcers themselves, but he was more concerned with the recharge of the summon power, in case he had to resummon mid-fight for PvP. i noticed, back in the good ol' days that slotting my fire imps with 6 recharges didn't speed up their attack rate, but just recharge of the summon power itself, so i'm guessing it's the same effect here. i know it cut down on that recharge time of the summon power itself for sure though. it's the same thing as vengence. it doesn't accept recharge reductions, but slotting a membrane in it does make it recharge faster. but the real gem here was him slotting the same exact HOs in 2 different powers that don't do the same thing, and still have them buffing something. the cytos went in both, for enforcers, to reduce the end cost, and to buff tohit, but they went into thugs to reduce end cost and debuff defense. why that works, i'll never know, but until they fix it, it's a nice little perk .

very good guide, and great breakdown of the powers. a friend of mine pvps heavily with his thugs/poison, and his build is pretty similar to what you described in your pvp blurb. he took tp foe+tp and hasten+ss (hasten is a big help in getting thugs equipped quickly, and getting the portions of the debuffs that do stack, stacked quickly). he also skipped antidote in favor of stimulant for added fear protection, and to unlock aid self. he also has quite a few HOs from the LRSF slotted, which helps since most powers have many aspects worth slotting. something creative he did was to slot a membrane and cytoskeleton into his enforcers to lessen the end cost and reduce the rech of the power itself (which slotting a recharge isn't an option, so the membrane is extremely nice there) and also, into his thugs because of the HO bug, something that buffs tohit, will also buff a tohit debuff aspect...if that makes any sense at all.

again, great guide overall, and since you mention running the LRSF with it, you might think about adding ideal, HO slotting in the future. i hate to sound nitpicky, but there are a few gramatical mistakes as well, but all in all, 5 stars for sure, one of the better guides i've read .

my team of 4 (bots/ff MM, fire/thermal corr, ss/invuln brute, and myself, an ice/dark corruptor, all 50 but me, who was 49) took down Lord Recluse during the first double xp weekend. it was the brutes mission, and she was set to relentless. it took a while, but we finally took him down, and as a reward, i got a bit over 1,000,000 xp. i nearly peed in my pants as roughly 2.5 bars completed at lvl 49 (for killing Recluse and the mission bonus). that was one of the single greatest moments for me, in game, ever...

but for this past weekend, i took my ice/cold corr, at lvl 49 on the LRSF. he needed about 3 or 4 bars to 50, which i got after killing Valkyrie the first time in the Vindicators mission. i'd really like to have seen what a +4 Hero would've been worth, but each Vindicator was worth ~141,000 xp.

yeah, very cool video, the music took me back a few years...great album. i'll end my comments there so i don't start a flame war b/c of my opinion of Metallica now though

man i love the jump jet...can't wait to use it in PvP. last night on my lvl 40 spines/regen stalker (who has swift/hurdle/SS/SJ) i jumped .77 miles. i have a feeling it would have gone further, but i hit the top of the zone! i was simply amazed. just to compare, my regular jump was .15 miles, so i was defintely pleased .

i've never tested the duration decrease of placate with assault, but i will say, you should see a stalker through hide+stealth anyways with TD+Tactics, so it's not as much of an issue for you...that's the route my ar/dev went so he could tp stalkers into a pile o' trip mines

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just short little story from last night... was on my blaster in SC and a claws/* stalker pops up focus me then placates me, witch of course dont slow me down do to the anti-placate effect on Assault...
so guess what i'm saying here is it possible that people here complaining that placate is not working could it be people there hitting with it in pvp have assault or anouther power that stops it?

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also, assault doesn't negate the placate (untargettable, not hidden) effect, it simply cuts the duration of it down. it's placate/taunt resistance, not immunity. even if they were running assault, they still, under the old Placate rules, wouldn't be able to target you immediately after you use it.

also, something else to consider...

with the admitted bug in placate, Impale's immob throws off the placate effect (targettable, not hidden) whereas Focus will not. since there is no ETA on this fix, i'd plan for it to be around for a while. also, the DoT effects placate in PvE. all in all, claws is faster animating with higher dps than spines, but lower burst dmg overall. however, for me at least, the icing on the cake at this point is the placate bug. i love my spines/regen stalker to death, and spines on a whole (3 toons that are spines/*), but right now, i'm advocating to go claws for less frustrating PvE and PvP experience in general.

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After numerous PMs, I figure I should address this.

First, we know about this. It was noted as happening during Beta.

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Odd. I don't know about anyone else, but I know that I didn't have these problems, whatsoever, until the Placate (toned down to stealth level -perception) and Dull Pain (no longer allowing a DPed Stalker to stay in Hidden while being attacked) changes came along.

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QFT

i PvPed all the time with my MA/Nin while he was around, and never once did having a status effect on a foe effect Placate's *intended* ability. it wasn't until Placate received it's nerf that this became a problem. point blank, a staple power for an entire AT (not just 1 set) is broken, but it's not important enough to fix. against a player with any skill at all, it's very tough to sneak up on someone to get an AS off in zone or arena combat b/c of all the ways to add perception. this makes me not even wanna play my spines/regen anymore...never thought i'd complain about Impale's Immob lasting too long...

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It is a whopping let down. Placate really didn't work with spines much anyhow due to the erratic DoT but now that it's been brought to light that the slows severely affect it as well....

I suppose Dark Melee and Ninja Blade are shafted royally then as every single attack has some sort of effect on it....

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i hate to say it but....

Claws ftw??? (only slash has any sort of effect right?)

well, i guess i will just have to wait 15-20 seconds after impale is fired to use placate for it to work...

kind of a crappy work-around on our end...i'm a bit dissapointed with this response

i believe we are...the only instance with this in a combined total of ~128 lvls of stalking with MA/EM/Spines that i've seen with this is with the DoT spines does. status effects don't have any bearing on placate in PvE it seems (i've used stun on bosses several times by accident and then quickly placated and they've not been able to target me, though if they had a bar with icons, the stun icon would be present). i think this bug is soley present in PvP, but i might be mistaken.

let me get this straight...you run in, BU + AS the Lieut (so target 1 dies), supposing he's with 2 minions, placate the 2nd minion, scrap it out with the 3rd minion, then return to the 2nd minion instantly, attempting an AS and expecting a crit?

if that's the case, i don't recall it ever working this way. you bust your chance to AS for a crit on the 2nd one after you begin scrapping the 3rd, or in your example, if it's a boss, you'll get the crit on him. if i'm reading this correctly (which i may have misunderstood you, i've been on the road for 650+ miles this weekend, deliriously tired ), you are expecting 2 crits after placate without taking time to rehide by taking advantage of the fact that minion 2 ignores you while you kill his buddy next to him. if you want to get that 2nd AS on him, but you've already attacked after the placate, youre going to have to re-hide again.

again, if i misunderstood you, sorry, but on a more related note:

great job on finding this problem. Angry, if you wanna do some testing with either spines or MA, PM me, i can get both on test ASAP.

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My patron is Black Scorpion for those who asked.

As far as Stealth and everything else goes, I rather hold up on that until I have been playing at 50 in RV and such for a bit. I am planning to write a different guide - and I already have my respec build for it - I just really don't like saying anything based on theorycraft. You know - test it first, only then advice people on it. Sorry. Give me some time.

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NO WE MUST GET AN ANSWER NOW!!!!!!ONEZOMG!!1ELEVENTYBILLION!!1
kidding, keep us posted and keep up the good work!

Firstly, great guide Elernet! i love the videos too. now, onto bigger and more pressing questions.

you wrote in your guide that you advise people to take stealth. does this line of thinking still apply given all the +perception powers that are out there for Recluse's Victory? i had stealth for the RV event and was still being seen by everyone...and that was before anyone even had access to Focused Accuracy. i eventually just quit using it, and was no worse off i thought. just wanted your opinion. my stalker is em/ea, but he is at 50 with nothing else to do, so i've started thinking about PvP again with him. also, you said in another thread that you've chosen a patron...is it a secret who you picked that you are waiting till the right time to unveil, or did i just miss seeing you mention who it was? my stalker is patronless atm, and i am not sure i wanna change that. anyways, thanks again in advance and good luck getting to 50

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The arcs Ghost Widow gives suck.

Unless you want "Darkness" powers, or she has something uber for your AT/Playstyle ((Brute powers are pretty much virtually the same)). Skip it and take one of the other 3. Their arcs are far more entertaining.

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I have to disagree, I just finished up my Ghost Widow arc last night and since I can't get the powers just yet I have to say that I was impressed with the arc myself it had all kinds of planning and story. Sure the zoning and dropping every time I entered or left either GV or the building where she is was kinda annoying but the Story itself was awasome.. And I got to punk a hero who thought she was untouchable!

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i'd have to agree with Octavius here. i really really enjoyed, not just GW's arc, but all the patron arcs. though i think Scirocco's was my favorite, GW's is definitely my second favorite. i also just picked up gloom on my brute and i gotta say, i love it. until 41, i still had brawl in my attack chain, but now it's been replaced and i couldn't be happier.

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Black Scorpion second story arc:

****SPOILERS**** and a warning

After completing the arc with Dr. Quatrexin and getting The Stinger badge, I was offered another arc - [censored] in the Armor. This arc involves kidnapping Dr. Aeon to make anti-ghost weapons for the Scorpion suit.

The final 2-part mission is bugged. The mission starts with Black Scorpion telling you to talk to an arbiter to set up a fake story and then kill Dr. Aeon. The arbiter doesn't believe the lame cover story and tells you to either stop Scorpion's insane plot or face the wrath of Recluse. The first door mission has you rescuing Dr. Aeon from Silver Mantis - but when I attacked Silver Mantis, Dr. Aeon just disappeared. Since rescuing him was an objective, I couldn't complete the mission. After that was cleared by a GM, I went on to the second - a timed mission to disarm some bombs and defeat Black Scorpion. Black Scorp spawned as an ambush after the last bomb, but defeating him didn't clear the mission - he only had 1 minion instead of 2, so I think one might have gotten lost. Had to get a GM to clear it with very little time to spare.

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SPOILERS AGAIN





I did both missions twice. Once I saw Dr. Aeon vanish I just went back out and reset and it worked the second time around.

As for the Black Scoripion Ambush, I had enough time to reset it and try again but the same thing happened. So 2 times I cleared everything on the map and clicked 5 bombs, defeated Black Scorpoin and his pals with no luck. It kind of erked me that this is an AUTO given TIMED AV mission.

The Strangest part is, the clues still exist in my queue. There was no souvenir. (not even one to tell me I failed). And Black Scorpion now just tells me to come back at 45. That entire second arc was never even available to some people.

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**SPOILERS YET AGAIN!!!**






so after doing this first mission where Dr. Aeon seemingly dissapears, i noticed that he was being hurt by some of Silver Mantis' AoE (trops and spine burst). after he dies, he tps out. to test it a 2nd time, i went in, drug her to the back room there, and fought her there, but died, and she turned right around, targetted the good Dr. and proceeded to kill him. so the first time was an accident so to speak, but her AI obviously lets her target him, which is the real problem. in with a GM atm, but i'm sure i'll have that same problem with the next mission and have to petition it too

**UPDATE**
just finished the timed mission. found all 5 bombs, the ambush came, he had only 1 minion, but after i killed them both, that was it. mission completed just fine. so it seems at least 1 of the 2 bugs got fixed along the way

in the same boat , though i wasted my time clearing the mission hoping for some kind of ambush that would let me complete it...to no avail .

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75% for placate, then 10 seconds later, you have the normal hide bonus. Not much of an issue as I see it. It still prevents someone from attacking me so I can hop, skip, jump and teleport away.

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so lemme get this straight, you took SJ, Teleport, and the skip power pools??? that's just too many travel powers if you ask me

sorry as it nears the end of the day/week, i tend to get a bit silly. as a side note though, i do think that adding a tohit check would be about the worst thing that could happen...just my 2 infamy though.

i'd say it kind of sucks, but i think it will take some true long and hard play testing to see the true ramifications of this one. i would say though that imho, placate was one of the most uber moves in all of PvP and did seem a bit unfair, but only time will tell because at first glance, it doesn't seem too bad, but after a bit of thought, i'll have to change my playstyle a bit i suppose

forgot to mention, post 300, whoo hoo!

great news all around, thanks guys and keep up the good work

FINALLY!!! FREAKIN W000T!!1

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Rock!

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Paper! I win!

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I'm going to go with Wolf.

"Wolf chews up paper"

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omg...i was laughing so hard at that link...that is awesome!!! i'm glad to know someone out there has less of a life than me