Shred_Monkey
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Posts
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Joined
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There's another way to look at this question. Instead of asking what do I want to become an incarnate... One might ask, what do I want to use to play through the incarnate content? Afterall, you're looking at a pretty big commitment toward doing 20-30 trials... maybe more.
Not knowing how your toons are built I can't say which one is best, but I'd recommend playing something with extreme survivabilty. And I recommend Single Target damage over AoE damage since the current trials seem to be more about killing a single target at a time instead of clearing a map. -
what is it with online gaming magazine interviews.. do they really only talk to people for like 60 seconds and then print up what's said? It's not like they need to cut down the length of an article to fit on a page. I learn more about the game reading a random forum post then reading an intereview with the dev's.
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I get the idea of doing "in charicter" announcements of upcoming developments... but this one was way to vague and uninformative to make me at all excited.
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willpower has access to more endurance recovery then most sets... you should have no trouble creating a build that will run maneuvers.
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Covering the stun of using a wakie is one of the great things I took advantage of way too often on my /regen scrappers.
IMHO, regen needs to add survivability wherever it can get it, so I'd definatly try to fit resiliance in a build. -
Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Don't know.
I DO know playing a character I enjoy playing trumps any farming speed. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to sit there and watch youtube videos while farming in a video game. I play the game to play the game. If I'm not paying attention to the game, I'm not going to be playing it.
I'll never understand the obsession with farming.
For some people their version of the game is to kill a pylon as fast as possible, others try to solo AVs or GMs. Other people try to build a great teaming toon and lead TFs/Mission teams. And yet for others the game is to to challenge themselves to be able to PL someone to 50 as fast as possible.
This game happens to be very strong at providing many many options in how to play it. If someone enjoys farming, well that's their game, and they can find a home here at CoH.
As long as the Dev's keep the gross exploits out of the game, it's all good. -
The thing I don't like about ES (I have both, so it's not enough to make me skip it)... is that it's range is short... all my other ST attacks are longer range so I have to move much closer to the fight just to use that 1 attack.
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You can't have everything exactly the same, that would be boring. Fire's niche is added damage pretty much across the board... and it sacrifices something in all cases as well... usually something related to survival.
That said, if we're talking firey aura and the ATs that get it, well, you're actually wrong... /Shields gives more DPS boost. -
Quote:I strongly want this one. I don't like the mallets... but I really like the stone fist look... especially with the lava options. I'd make a stone melee toon the day this was implemented.Originally Posted by Ghost_Machine_NA
4. More alternate animations to certain sets, the first that comes to mind is stone melee, I'd LOVE to have an all punching version of it and on the flip side an all mallet version, since some characters don't really fit a mallet or sometimes the punching attacks. Same thing could be said with fire melee or even ice.
All sword attacks for fire/ice and all fist attacks as options would really help those sets open up new concepts. And it doesn't sound like it'd be a terrible amount of work. -
Quote:This came up in another thread here this week.Originally Posted by Syntax42
Neither of these are correct. Mob AI is designed to run out of patch or rain powers, unless taunted. It isn't exactly a fear effect, but they behave as if they were feared. When the change happened, I noticed a considerable delay in how long it took for the critters to leave the Burn patch on my Spines/Fire.
Edit: Also, don't forget about the morale coding that makes them flee when their allies are defeated. Nobody has really posted solid information on the mechanics of it, but it is one possible cause of fleeing enemies on a Scrapper without a taunt aura.
I'd be really curious to see an arcana-like study on mob fleeing mechanics. I don't know enough about thsee mechanics to make as informed a decision as I'd like when looking at potential build choices. I just know DoTs and damage auras tend to make it worse... and it gets much worse at high levels. -
Since you're talking a lot about the visual side of things... i'd also vote for MA/DA. /DA will already make you kind of a fuzzy ball that's not always there... MA graphics include a "flash" of light/energy at the contact point when you kick something which looks pretty cool with /DA... and the colors of the flashes can be customized if you want.
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I'm not surprised it sold at 200M... but I am surprised it sold for 500M.
And for some unknown reason the ski chalet is actually open right now. -
Quote:I disagree... doing damage slowly makes things run, so damage auras tend to cause a lot of runners. Burn does, this too, although it's damage is often high enough that they die before they get away. It's much more obvious at higher levels of play. I have a spines/electric scrapper I enjoyed a lot until about level 45.. then it just got silly of much I had to chase things down compared to what I was accustomed to on my /SR toon.Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
I wouldn't say damage auras cause things to run. Burn does and it's in the same set as a damage aura but I've never noticed increased incidence of flight on my elecs and darks as compared to my other non-taunt aura meleers. It's still true that the brute will grab attention better, but scrapper damage auras don't make things run.
Without running the numbers, my intuition is that scrapper claws/elec will do better aoe than brute claws/elec for two reasons. The first is that followup is a much more pronounced buff on scrappers, boosting spin of course but also the aura. The second is that scrapper spin has a much shorter recharge than brute spin - less damage, in terms of base values, but good luck chaining followup -> spin -> focus on a brute while still achieving substantial s/l defense.
I'm sure the brute would still be great but if you're not doing the most damage, it just isn't the same...
Regarding their toughness in terms of scrappers, elec is "differently durable" than super reflexes. Their defenses work in utterly different ways, thus they do well in different situations. With elec, arachnos and their autohit defense debuffs are quite obnoxious, while carnies are no more threatening than council or nems. SR would perhaps be tougher in the greater number of highbie situations but then again it doesn't get a damage aura or an end recovery power. -
Add venders to Pocket-D and be done with it. That's really the only thing missing that comes to mind. RWZ makes more sense to me, but that's not where some servers meet.
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Quote:In my experience, where DB jumps ahead of those other sets isn't just the DPS of the top attack chain... it's the fact that the big hitter in DB's chain (sweeping strikes) is a 90 degree cone.Originally Posted by Werner
Good point. I wouldn't personally like being stuck with "only" 200% extra regeneration for a minute with no heal except greens, but that much regeneration DOES go a really long way when nothing can hit you. A number of people have done all the usual dangerous stuff using just passive regeneration on a Super Reflexes, and that was before Rebirth. So yeah, Rebirth is plenty for most things most of the time.
Using the same basic template that had Katana doing 242 DPS, Dual Blades ended up with the exact same number. Now, that's pre-incarnate powers, and with Spiritual you can get the Dual Blades damage up a little higher (249 DPS) since the top chain tops out at +314% recharge, which I wasn't achieving.
Both should benefit about the same from Interface, as both top chains put out four attacks in 4.5 seconds. The Katana chain gets a little more -resistance than the Dual Blades chain, so probably gets a hair more out of Interface damage, but it's hardly a deciding factor.
Maybe I should say more about front-loading damage. A long time ago, I was comparing a Broad Sword build to a Dual Blades build. I'm kind of making up numbers since I don't remember exactly, but I think the Broad Sword build did around 175 DPS, and the Dual Blades build did around 225 DPS. The thing is, Broad Sword was ahead on damage for the first 15 or so seconds of the fight despite a 50 DPS deficit. If we're talking about a mere 7 DPS deficit, I think we'd find that the Katana damage is ahead of Dual Blades for a very long time indeed. Front loaded damage is also better at taking out threats in a spawn, improving survivability.
In practice, though, it would probably be pretty hard to notice the difference just based on performance. Both would tear through spawns quickly. Both would eliminate dangerous mobs quickly.
Actually, it's kind of shocking to me how well-balanced power sets remain even with top end builds. I know the devs have had seven years to iron all this out, but I'm still impressed.
And I do agree... the primary sets are very balanced as is. Generally one only pulls ahead of the others if you value something or devalue something in particular... if you want the heal, you get low AoE damage... you want high ST dps you may have to give up burst damage... or endurance management... etc, etc... I would like to see a few sets get tweaked upward slightly in end game damage where their secondary effects seem less important, but in general, i'm very satisfied with where things are.
edit: also.. I could be wrong, but i've never seen a case where adding spiritual to get more recharge gives a higher dps boost then adding musculature... even if you do have gaps in your chain. -
I really enjoy my DP/traps defender... I bring something completely different to a team then my scrappers (mostly debuffs and a big +defense buff)... but in terms of play style, he's pretty similar... I can still open a fight... I still go into melee to use my powers... and I still get to do a lot of attacking. And very importantly, he has status protection.
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Blasters are a 1 trick pony... Adding traps makes you a 47 trick pony. DP/Traps for sure gets my vote... I went defender myself for better buffs/debuffs and the better recharge on soul drain in the epic pools. (it's the same recharge as hail of bullets in the Defender epics... which is truely a thing of beauty)
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Quote:Originally Posted by Werner
With the builds we're talking about, the hope is that you don't actually need Shadow Meld very often. Instead, Divine Avalanche and 33% ranged and AoE defense handles you most of the time. Like all of the clicks, you use Shadow Meld as necessary rather than endlessly cycling it whenever it is up.
Ahh... there's the rub for me. I already have /SR build with 59+ defense while still cycling high DPS with relatively no click interuptions... so I'm not willing to sacrifice both defense and DPS on another toon. Granted that build has no form or heal or regen boost (just 345% regen at 1887 hp)... so there's some risk involved, but in my experience, that's more then enough to solo through the collection phase of the lambda trials, which seem to be the most dangerous thing . I'd be afraid to absorb an alpha strike of most trial spawns with only 33% ranged defense.
That aside, I'm not sure why you're saying my build is short of defense. My understanding is that barrier will always have 5% defense up, so I need to hit 55% (about) defense... if mids is correct then both shadowmeld and MoG easily have that... Am I missing something? I think what I did was exchange spiritual for barrier and then picked up the recharge differently in exchange for the defense. Though I didn't realize you were using spiritual, so I did misunderstand why it appeared you had extra defense and too little recharge.
Still... it's not a build I'd play. Too clicky. I do like the fact that at that much recharge you can get off 3 golden dragonflies within 1 build-up. -
Quote:OK... i'm on board with the concept enough to do the math... but I don't like having this like hasten that far short of permanent... and while I'm at it, if I've already got 59+ ranged and AoE (with barrier), it's not to hard to drop divine avalanche and pick up the melee defense somewhere else... trusting MoG-Meld-MoG-Barrier plan to cover me completely. Also, throw in Phase Shift because, well, I already went to that pool for the recharge.... no tough in this build... I don't think it's doing much more then burning endurance.Originally Posted by Werner
Yeah, that looks like my latest...
This is a build I'd consider playing... although to be honest... Shadow Meld having a 3 second cast time completely kills it for me.
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Quote:I read that thread. Why play a /regen toon that survives incarnate content doing at best 140 dps when you can play an /SR toon that survives incarnate content doing 280+ dps? There was a lot of really neat stuff in that thread... but you can apply it to other toons besides regen (and dark) for good results without using katana as a crutch.Originally Posted by Werner
Have you seen my Katana/Regen thread? Regen has taken a lot of flak recently, including from me, and I wanted to see if one could be competitive in I20. My initial salvo was a soft-capped near perma Hasten build that could juggle Barrier, Shadow Meld and Moment of Glory to be over the incarnate soft cap most of the time. With the community's help, things just got better from there.
I'm not saying it's the best combination around, but I do think it can be competitive.
That's Katana, though, and of course I'm leaning on Divine Avalanche. Not so sure about Claws, though as I recall John Printemps did pretty well with one. -
If you're worried about survivability, then regen and willpower aren't going to make you feel better. A super reflexes scrapper built for soft-capped defenses and high hitpoints is going to outlive a willpower scrapper and a regen scrapper 10 out of 10 times.
There's other good reasons to roll up a new toon, so I'm not saying don't do it. I honestly wish it wasn't this way, and I've spent a lot of time the last 4-5 years trying to create builds that proved this wrong. Unfortunately, if your level 50 survivability were your only reason for starting fresh, I suspect you're going to be really disappointed with regen and willpower.
I don't know if your /SR has all the HP accolades, and what it's build is, but I suspect that's a better place to look for improvement rather then rerolling. -
Quote:Heh... you know... at some point you do have to step back and ask yourself... am I creating a computer simulation to model the output of what is, in some respects, another computer simulation?Originally Posted by John_Printemps
Looking into this issue at the moment. Time is fleeting, though, but I do have the Survivability Matrix now and working with a friend in an attempt to infuse DPS values into quantifiable damage mitigation that coincide with the Matrix. So far, I am more cursing the spreadsheet and wanting some C++
It's ok.. I've done the same thing. -
Weapon sets for doms... katana dom... pistols dom... archery dom... maybe not exactly a perfect fit with the way doms are designed, but I think it can be made to work, and it does fit the way I would want to play my doms.
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I heard this advice from someone else who was getting thier wife/girlfriend into the game that sounded very wise.
1. Give them the toon that does the killing. It may seem cool to have your wife buffing your toon who goes in and does all the work, but she may enjoy it more the other way around.
2. When things go bad.. do everything you can to make sure you die before her. If your toon sacrifices his life to save hers, that's a good thing. If she dies and you clean up the mess then give here a wakie... not so good.
I guess really what I'm saying is, what you pick to level up with here and how you play it is probably more important then what she picks. -
I bought an ASUS Model: G73SW-BST6 from Best Buy a few months ago. It was available as a rebuilt model so it was just under $1000. Runs CoH on Ultra mode very well. I'm very satisfied with the purchase. It's a very big laptop... but it works well on your lap.. it doesn't even get hot. The only thing I would change about it is I miss having a 2nd set of mouse buttons at the top of the touch pad that my old laptop had. That was very handy as it puts it right below the space bar so I could open doors/click objects without moving my hand.