Silas
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Posts
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The Stalker would be a stronger soloer, with two self heals, higher spike damage with AS, better DPS due to DM being crazy good and defense debuff resistance.
The Bane/Huntsman would be much better for teams, as mentioned above. The -resistance from Venom Nade, Surveillance and Shatter Armor are huge damage multipliers for a team, double Maneuvers and Assault (or even just single if you don't want the pool versions) are a great asset for a team. You've also got much better AoE damage, which is king when teaming.
I'd say make the call based on two factors. One, whichever concept/idea/powers you like most and two, how much time you're going to spend soloing/teaming.
Stalkers can be frustrating to team with on big teams, because you've got pretty much 0 AoE and even bosses will be dying really fast anyway. If you do a lot of teaming, the Huntsman/Bane would bring a lot more to a team and probably be more fun.
More important than that though is the first point though. If you like the DM/Nin powers or AS more than the rifle/mace powers (or vice versa, whatever) then go with that. Both will be strong characters, just the Stalker solos better and the Bane/Huntsman teams better. -
It's actually a highly synergistic pairing.
Siren's Song can let you plant your Trip Mines without getting interrupted and those Trip Mines can help with the relatively weak AoE firepower of Sonic.
I don't think there's any big flaw, just that if concept isn't a big deal and you're only concerned with effectiveness, you might want to go with another primary. That's because while Siren's Song lets you drop Mines unmolested, other primaries (like Fire) can put out huge AoE damage without faffing about with a long interruptible animation, while having much higher ST damage to boot.
It's a highly effective combo, just with the caveat of basically everything Sonic/Traps does, Fire/Traps does better. If you're not fussed about maxium effectiveness or have a concept or whatever, Sonic/Traps is a great choice. -
Quote:Good grief, I wasn't going to launch into a "diatribe" about the right way to do things. I wasn't even saying to the other guy that slotting the Servant for healing is wrong. Just that IMO slotting him for -tohit is more effective.Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
Having SM: Oppressive Gloom, I find a mob's to hit essentially = zero when they're all stunned. Also slotted with the Absolute Amazement -to hit proc. Adding in Darkest Night, Shadow Fall and Fearsome Stare (mine and Lich), the probability of being hit by an enemy that remains unstunned (EBs, etc) already approaches nil. Someone mentioned the uncertainty of when and where Servant will apply his heal. I submit that the same uncertainty applies to his debuffs.
Generally speaking, I don't need to heal myself that much. My usual tactic is to follow my pets that close to melee, keeping them healed as needed, while the pets that lag behind, attacking from range (Servant and Lich) tend to wind up near each other, thus keeping the Lich healed as needed. Have essentially tanked a great deal this way without issue. The heal simply means that I experience nearly zero downtime between mobs.
If you're going to launch into a diatribe about the "right" way to do things, feel free to save it. I didn't do so with yours, I'm just presenting an alternative.
You're right, the uncertainty about the Servant not knowing when to heal also applies to him not knowing how/where to best apply his tohit debuffs.
What the deciding factor for me is that he only has one power which he will use chaotically, whereas almost all his other powers which he also uses chaotically do -tohit. For that reason, I feel it's more effective to slot him for -tohit. That way, he's well slotted for something you can rely on him to do, which is not the case slotting him for healing. -
Fire/Fire is indeed squishy, mainly because /FA generally requires mitigation help from the primary, which Fire/ doesn't offer.
SS/FA does not have this problem. I mean, compared to say SS/WP or SS/Inv, SS/FA is still squishy but all the KD, (especially Footstomp), works wonders for /FA. Being able to knock an entire spawn on their arses every 5-10 seconds is really helpful in giving Healing Flames time to recharge.
SS/Elec has better resistances and esoteric protections, (end drain, psy, toxic in the Godmode, etc), but the heal recharges much slower and has a +regen component.
I personally am not a fan of /Elec because of Grounded being screwy, (no KB resistance - just protection so high mag KB will throw you around, only works on the ground and doesn't work on all surfaces), and generally not being a fan of how Energize works.
I never found it to do all that much for my survivability. What /Elec really shines at, and I mean really shines at, is endurance management. Energize gives you a 60% (I think? Someone correct me if I'm wrong) endurance discount and once you get Power Sink you'll never have end issues again. Power Sink is also pretty good at draining in conjunction with Lightning Field.
They're both strong combinations so you shouldn't be discouraged by my personal dislike for /Elec, I just feel SS/FA is a stronger combination.
Oh, last thing to note. SS/Elec having much more rounded resistances and protections means it is generally more reliable while leveling up, especially in the 40s where you face a lot of psy damage, drains and debuffs.
Depending on how much you're willing to spend on the character and what you're using it for, I'd recommend different things.
For farming/high budget: SS/FA
For overall leveling/low-medium budget: SS/Elec
Hope that helps
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Also, I'm pretty sure its 125% global recharge for Hasten-less Permadom.
123 (assuming Nericus is right) is the amount of global recharge you need for Permadom without Hasten. At that level of global recharge you've got Perma-Hasten anyway but it's nice because you can go afk with Dom on auto and it won't drop.
70% recharge and 6 slotted Hasten is the bare minimum, but you'd be much better off 3 slotting Hasten and aiming for 75-80%. The last 3 slots in Hasten are of really, really little value so you'd get more Permadom breathing room with more global recharge, (which will also help the recharge on Hasten). -
Congrats guys
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Quote:Honestly, I think merits should be account-wide. I get that they're supposed to represent the achievements of the individual characters, but for such an alt-heavy game it doesn't make any sense.Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
[...]And on that note, I wonder if there's a way to reconcile pooled/transferrable merits with the veteran rewards. I'd just change them to a one-time award into the account-wide pool when the badges are earned, but then I don't have to deal with the torches and pitchforks.
I wouldn't make them sellable or tradeable, just account wide. It would help both casual players because they could pool their merits together to buy specific stuff they want as well as fixing a personal peeve of mine, namely having say 17 merits on one character and 3 on another.
You're right though, this would be potentially abuseable with the vet reward. Roll character, claim reward, delete character, repeat, profit.
The issue with making it a one-time claim of 5 merits is that it totally sucks for everyone who reaches the reward after the change, because they'll get 5 merits, where everyone who got it before could have up to 180 (5 merits x 36 character slots).
Making the vet reward a one-time claim of 180 merits seems a little OTT though. Or maybe just those 5 vet reward merits could be made non-account wide? I don't know if there's a flag or something that could be put on them.
So at least if you make a new character, claim your vet reward you've still got to either take 15 merits out of your stash or earn another 15 to make a roll. Which is still kinda problematic, since it makes rolls for vets effectively 15 merits, albeit only at super low levels. -
I thought you mostly played Villside Nethergoat, surely you'd be used to great content with crap merit rewards
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Quote:feels bad, man :cOriginally Posted by Cobalt_Azurean
They nuked that map a while back. Some issue with mob spawns.
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Quote:Fear not, the matter has been rectified.Originally Posted by Ashcraft
...an unfortunate and unforseen occurance
(Unfortunately, not as rectified as I'd like. I couldn't find the burning forest map from the RWZ arcs anywhere :C ) -
Quote:You probably could actually do one with 2 Corrs. Like a Fire/Traps and a Thermal probably.Originally Posted by Llewthor
Yeah, Silas means do it on corruptors
Nice job Fang and Cherry. Gratz!
-Llew. -
Quote:Congratulations! You ate the most bees! A winner is you.Originally Posted by Ashcraft
Ow ow ow. Can I stop eating bees now? Please?
You may be called upon to defend your title from time to time, however.
The life of a champion is difficult indeed. -
You thought that I had exacted my revenge?
You are naïve, squirrel.
Your incessant chitterings have caused my baleful gaze to fall upon you. As a result I shall not rest until you have felt the full extent of my wrath.
My wrath is something you will find to be both puzzlingly petty and incomprehensibly vast.
Or I could settle for telling everyone your terrible, terrible secret.
Namely, that your tail is so fluffy not because "maybe it's natural, maybe it's Maybelline" as you would have us believe but because once, long ago, your mother did indeed lay with...a FRENCHMAN!
No, I am sorry Ashywashycraftywoodles. I have gone too far in my frothing demand for bloody vengeance.
Here, I will throw a party with games and contests, just for you.
I hope we can be friends
Or, failing that, then let it be as Confucius once decreed: On, like the Donkey Kong. -
Congrats you guys
Now do it on villains
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Kiss me, you fool.
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Quote:My sentiments exactly. I'm done here.Originally Posted by kalashnikow
oh well, i give up, its impossible to discuss with mindless selfloved demagogues.
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Quote:He is probably referring to the perma-MoG days. When tbh it still wasn't that great because psy would instagib you and whatever damage you did take, (especially autohit stuff like Caltrops), would rapidly dwindle what little health you had.Originally Posted by EvilGeko
Immediately prior to the buff, the power was detrimental to use in nearly every situation.
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Quote:Protip: Surface area is for 3-dimensional objects. A circle has area (πr2). A sphere has surface area. While our combat is in three dimensions, mobs are almost always on the same level, with stuff like fliers being an exception.Originally Posted by kalashnikow
sorry to say it, but please go to school and study some math.
surface area of a circle is S=pi * R^2
so 40 ^2 = 1600, 1600*3.14 = 5024
further discussion is pointless with a person who didn' learned to count well in the school.
Momentarily setting aside the fact that Darkest Night also does damage debuff which will reduce the per-hit damage, reducing a mobs tohit does reduce the DPS they will do, because they will hit less often.Quote:Originally Posted by kalashnikow
ok, seems the skilldatabase i used as reference was a bit bugged. verified ingame, it is 25 feets.
BUT! it look closer to it, it can only affect 10 targets. 11th mob will do a full DPS, and ALL of them, even dubuffed, still doing the SAME damage per skill amount.
pets WILL be eating spike damage.
No, regardless of how much you slot for debuff this damage spike CAN occur. The more you slot for tohit debuff the less it WILL occur.Quote:Originally Posted by kalashnikow
again, not true. -hit mean less hits, not weaker hits.
if a mob unleash a foot stomp or something even if you have a brute in team your meele pets WILL get hit. but where a brute can hold it your pets definitely can not. and this hit will be at full strength leaving the pets an "near to die" state (if not killing them with 1 shot).
regardless how much you will slot for debuff this damage spike WILL occur. and what can you do about it? only heal.
I'd much rather my pets or I get hit far fewer times for full damage, (again, not even strictly accurate because both TG and DN debuff damage), than get hit every time and spend all my time spamming heals like a bad Empath.
Healing is reactive protection, tohit debuffing is proactive. The more and better proactive protection you have, the less reactive protection you need.Quote:Originally Posted by kalashnikow
again, to emphasize all said:
1) -tohit reduce Damage per Second, but do not reduce Damage per Hit. -tohit only gives you _some_ time to heal back received damage. if you didn't healed your pets back to 100% life they will NOT survive the next hit.
this is 100% true for any tier 1 pets, with exception of may be demons with their around 50% innate resistance. but even with my demons/term toon i have sometimes problems to keep tier 1 alive, regardless their huge total resistance they still get strong spike damage.
and it also 80% true for any tier 2 pet. if you are a zombie/dark like mine toon you will be screwed of nearly all of your pets with one shot. zombies, knights and fluffy himself going in to meele and eating meele nukes. thats 6 pets you will need to heal back once they got hit, which lead us to next problem.
2) to heal you have two options, you own twilight grasp, which sucks like it is, with 10 feet reach you probably heal 2 meele pets or twilight grasp from fluffy, which is wider and most probably will cover your whole group. and last but not least with 2 healslots it heal _MORE_ then your own with 2 healslots. since i don't use sets i can tell correct numbers, its 384 for MM own and 438 for fluffy.
3) MM has enough skills to debuff, what MM can NOT is properly heal because of radius. because he ain't corrupter or defender. devs clearly crippled /dark proliferation.
/dark corrupter or dark/ defender are both healer and debuffer and their fluffy's too.
/dark MM is debuffer with crippled heal and his fluffy is crippled by recharge.
proliferation for MM clearly separated the roles of the player and his fluffy. while fluffy can heal player can not and while player can debuff fluffy need 2 slot for recharge to get perma.
Add into this the fact that the Fluffy doesn't know when the best time to heal is and just spams all of his powers as they recharge. Everything he does bar PG does tohit debuff.
Slotting him for heals is like slotting Broadsword and Katana melee attacks for defense debuff. His heal is a bonus, not his primary benefit. -
Quote:Ah, yes.Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
I tend to think of slows as controls rather than debuffs. Not lockdowns like a hold or full mez, but in the same field as immobilizes.
Yeah, I don't really try to slow stuff specifically. Stuff gets slowed as a by-product of the other stuff I do.
Drop Sleet so you can kill faster, blasting away with Ice Blasts and dropping Storms, dropping Heat Loss so stuff dies faster and you/team gets endurance = stuff gets slowed
The only slow for the sake of slow power I might use is Snow Storm, which I didn't take. Stuff stays in place plenty with Sleet + Ice Storm. If I had a spare power slot I'd take it, but I didn't. I took FW instead, since it's also just great with one slot and comes in more handy than Snow Storm would. -
Footstomp is by far the worst offender, especially if you're using it all the time. It uses a tonne of endurance. Drop the Oblit Dam for a generic end rdx.
As said above, stacking/perma Rage doesn't negate the -damage or end crash, only the -defense. As an Invuln you'll want Rage perma anyway so you don't have the defense crash.
+1 to what barrier said about 4 slotting Stamina. You want to max out the end mod, then add the Shifter proc.
If you can take a slot from somewhere, an end rdx in the 6th slot of KO Blow would probably help too. -
Quote:Hard to ignore, but you wouldn't need the heal so much if he was doing a better job debuffing tohit.Originally Posted by Bloodspeaker
Getting impressive heal numbers from Servant with 5 slot Touch of the Nictus (sans neg nrg proc) and an accuracy. Now, my necro/dark is healing around 488 per pop with Twilight Grasp, and Servant around 415. Hard to ignore 900 points of AoE heal every few seconds.
The heal on the Servant is a bonus. He is best slotted for tohit debuff. -
Llew, I can't comment on the builds since I'm away this weekend but for general stuff:
Don't skip MG. It's fantastic damage. Pure negative damage, animates fast, has a useful side effect. Your main and best attacks are Smite, SL and MG. Gives you stupid fast damage, self healing in your attack chain and very rarely resisted damage.
I don't know how end-heavy DM/FA is but I'm under the impression that the main draw of DM/FA is dual self heals, dual end regaining powers and dual +damage powers. Both recharge in 180 seconds base, but Consume has a much bigger radius. I'd take both if you can, especially if you're not planning on building for a huge amount of +rech and +rec.
As for defense, while /FA does benefit greatly from it since it's fairly squishy, the advantage of DM/FA is that you've got 2 heals, one of which you'll be cycling in your attack chain. For that reason, (and the fact that DM/FA is so heavily click-based), I'd go full out balls-to-the-wall +recharge.
Damn, this is making me want a DM/FA.
Really though, +recharge will give you the most uptime on SD and FE, bring HF and SL up faster, give you the recharge you need to run the best DM attack chain. Darkest Night will help with squishyness and you've got DC/Consume to help you run it. Darkest Night pull, SD, FE, Dark Obliteration while BA ticks away for tonnes.
ffffffffuuuuuuu damnit Llew this is really making me want a DM/FA.
Uh, to summarize: Don't skip MG, build for +recharge, +rec and +hp (in that order), profit. -
Quote:It is and it's something I've considered swapping in instead of the end rdx. Subdue with Apocs + Dominate with Decis and Unbreak proc = brutal.Originally Posted by _Tux__EU
Really good Fort guide Silas.
I hear the Unbreakable Constraint proc in Dominate is great fun (and damage!). I guess pairing it with the Apoc proc would yield stupid omgwhatjusthitthat times aswell
You could swap the Apocs into Dominate for double proccage but I think Subdue has better base values than Dominate so it benefits more from the higher values of the Apoc set. -
Quote:Is that Radiation Blast/Dark Miasma or Dark Blast/Radiation Emission? If the latter, I'd love if you could let me know how Dark Blasts damage is for Corrs in pve/pvpOriginally Posted by 4shes
4sphixia, My new Rad/Dark Corruptor for PvP dueling is now 50 and only 2 apocs and accolades away from being complete.
Thank you to MAH for the original idea and Gfunny for the hero prototype.
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I would say upgrading the pet is alright, since it just unlocks more powers for the pet. Doing it without upgrades would just be more of an achievement, but no more valid.
It's just external buffs/debuffs/whatever that would make it not soloing, imo at least.
Edit: I'd include stuff like Serum/Hell on Earth/Smoke Flash as external buffs, even though they're in the same set as their respective pets.