Siolfir

zomg
A Slaxibot sighting!

The issue with selecting "the most underpowered" is that different people play differently, and so you can only select what'll be underpowered most of the time for you.

Personally, I'd lean towards BA - but I also haven't tried it. I rank it low based on theoretical numbers, the fact that I dislike weapon sets in general due to the animations while moving (and weapon redraw is a factor for peak Brute performance since Gloom is such good DPA), and it's lethal damage - which unless you like fighting Carnies, is going to be a noticeable difference compared to other sets later on in the game. I put Energy Melee somewhere in the middle of the pack, mostly for the damage type, and Electric Melee right there wherever it's at as the flip side of the same issue.


So since it seems to be a popular pick in the thread so far, here's my take on EM and why it's listed as a bottom-feeder by many: keeping in mind that my EM/Elec Brute was my first Brute to hit 50 - prior to the change to Energy Transfer (or putting any IOs on her, for that matter - she hit 50 about 3 weeks into i9). Even back then, I understood that EM didn't provide mitigation beyond "that mob there is going to die really fast" but it worked fairly well and I could get by with it for most anything in the game. When Energy Transfer was changed (along with reducing the mag stun on TF, but mostly it was animation time related) there were several things that changed:

1. The feel of the set was drastically altered. Previously I could use TF if I wanted, but most of the time I didn't bother. It was simply too slow, and it broke the feel of the set.
2. That attack that does a ton of damage no longer does it in an instant, which means that mobs have more time to attack you. This means you're taking more damage, on top of the self-damage of the power itself.
3. The self damage in ET happens if you hit - even if the mob is already dead by the time the damage would happen. This isn't a change, but since the damage now happens roughly 2 seconds later than it used to (the damage happened in the old animation before you pulled your arm back, which was part of the animation time of 1 sec!) there's a much greater chance that your target is going to die before it goes off.

That alone wouldn't cripple the set; it makes it weaker by a great deal, and hurts the mitigation, but the real kicker is that it got absolutely nothing in return. The low AoE damage wasn't helped, it still doesn't have any reliable AoE mitigation (Whirling Hands' 30% chance for a short duration, minion-level stun doesn't count), and it was only a "top tier" set in single-target damage (and stacking stuns on a single target), and primarily burst at that (Stone Melee, with the old mallet animation times, could reach similar sustained ST numbers if you could get the recharge low enough and maintain the endurance cost... only ET had better DPA for Brutes). But single target damage, and specifically burst, was a part of the game which mattered pretty much only while soloing and in PvP. The rapid-fire single target pace made up some ground on the low AoE, so it wasn't a total waste in that department. For a long time, I didn't log the character on at all, and even did a series of respecs to pull off the IOs which I had put on her (after a while as a 50).

Now, it's still okay at single-target damage and good for single-target burst - but you can't throw 2 ETs into one Build Up window for extreme burst anymore, and it's lacking AoE - both damage and mitigation - as well. But while solo, or on small teams, it's still a worthwhile set. Since Energize came along to help make up for the lost mitigation from killing so quickly, I've taken to playing my EM/Elec again (using Lightning Field, Ball Lightning, and yes, even Whirling Hands to get some AoE damage out of her). She's still not as fun as she was, but I got used to the difference in the feel after playing an EM Stalker for a bit and so I'm not comparing her performance now to her performance then every time I log her on.

If anyone cares, here are the primaries I've played and how far I took them as a Brute: EM: 50; ElM: 50; SM: 50; DB: 36; SS: 44; DM: 50; FM: 50.


Ranking those:

• Team environment: SS (damage/mitigation), SM (mitigation - Fault can replace most of a secondary all by itself), FM (good damage, ST and AoE, but you'll need help with mitigation elsewhere), ElM (good AoE but "meh" ST), DB (decent AoE, "meh" ST, and it's lethal damage), DM (Soul Drain is very nice for extra damage), EM (it's not lethal damage)
• Solo/small numbers of enemies: SM (Seismic Smash, Heavy Mallet, more mitigation than you need while solo), EM (still has good ST), DM (Soul Drain doesn't help quite so much with less mobs to feed it, but Siphon Life is a very nice addition), FM (good DPA, but lots of DoT so mobs still get a chance to hit back), SS (Rage crashes suck), ElM (uh... it's not lethal damage?), DB (similar damage capability to ElM, but a more resisted damage type).

Those rankings are purely subjective, though, and there are some sets that I just look at and go "bleh" before I ever even make the character (such as Battle Axe).

The above is my typical SO slotting for Electric Armor, with the exception of Lightning Field... I would've replaced one of the EndReds with an Acc, and one of the Damages with an EndMod.

This gives me over 90% tohit against +3s, so keeps the streakbreaker intact for my attack chain; it also means I can use it offensively with Power Sink to keep the endurance down on mobs near me. As for damage? That's what Fury is for - 30% of an already tiny number is roughly 1-2 points difference.

Some more advice, since yes, things are slower than they used to be on Infinity (especially villainside):

The global channels are going to be a good resource for finding teams, as will your global friends list. Of the channels listed above, Infinity Badges is full so you won't be able to join it - there is an Infinity Badges 2.0 started that you can join that a lot of people from the original channel are switching to.

Many people look for pre-existing teams, and solo (or log off) if they don't find one. If you really want to team and can't find one, start one. Just keep in mind that if you're looking for (or trying to form) a team in broadcast or request, you won't be able to reach anyone that's not in the same zone you are - and if people are running missions they'll be in an instance most of the time. This is where those global channels come in handy - just shout out "level x-ish redside team (forming/lfm/etc)". If you want to be really nice, tell them what you're doing (ie, papers, arcs, a strike force(!), etc).

If redside is completely dead, you can head to the Rikti War Zone now even at level 1 and try to team with some heroes. This one's pretty much a last resort, though, since there's no guarantee that you'll be able to find a team there. But I have used it to team with friends who wanted to play villains when I wanted to play a hero I was working on (note that there's an AE building there, too, so you don't have to fight against just Rikti).

When you do get on teams with people you like and get along well with, add people to your friends list - and try the global friends list first (this way you can track people even on other characters/servers; the basic friends list is just for that specific character).

Check the forums for events that you'd be interested in. I can't make the Tuesday nights due to my class schedule, but Blood Spectre runs a Rogue Isles Legends villain team which is essentially just a planned, "lets get our villains and team together" night.

Blueside isn't horrible... but I like the villain ATs (in general) better than hero ATs: it was the devs second shot at designing things when they made CoV and with some tweaking recently on some of the "bleh" ATs the balance of fun vs frustration with all of the ATs seems a little nicer - you're not often thinking to yourself "just 20 more levels and this character will be playable" solely because of the AT you picked, anyway... that's more of a specific powerset issue (or just getting way too used to having a character with lots of IOs and Stamina, then going back to a blank slate). But if you can't ever find/form a team and everything you see in the global channels seems to be happening heroside, try making a hero... then convince the friends you make heroside to make villains to team with you (you did pick a Corruptor, after all).

Welcome to the game, and enjoy!

Weave isn't required to soft-cap, but you'll need a LOT of IOs to do it otherwise; melee and ranged are fairly easy, it's the AoE that's the problem. I don't have a build for her (lost it with a hard drive crash months ago), but my DM/Nin is soft-capped to Melee and Ranged with AoE in the low 40s using no Blessing of the Zephyrs; my Elec/Nin planned build is softcapped without Weave but I still don't have it done (because Blessing of the Zephyrs are annoying to get).

Stealth is useless for a Stalker in PvE. Anything that can see you with Hide up will see you regardless because it ignores stealth entirely. So basically stay away from Rikti drones (or Placate them) and Knives of Artemis... I'm not sure if Cysts just have a high perception radius or completely ignore stealth also, but I've been attacked by one with around 100' of stealth on a LGTF before (that was with a Corruptor, though).

Enjoy!

Well, given that there's some actual discussion I'll toss aside my initial assumption that it's a troll thread and post my perspective.

On the server merge
No. Just, no. First, the reasons don't really make sense.

Want to PvP with people from other servers? Copy to Test. Or, better yet, push the devs for cross-server PvP - something that has a much better likelihood than a server merge just so you can have more people to pick on in RV*.

As for improving performance... if you have too many people for the hardware currently, then adding more initially hardware seems like the way to go. Until you factor in that said "more hardware" comes with "more people", who are also using said "more hardware". You're more likely to cause problems for the people coming from the server where said hardware was taken than you are to fix the issues for the overcrowded server that it's going to.

On PvP
This is where that * from above gets thrown in: I haven't PvP'd on Guardian. At all. My experience in PvP comes from two challenge matches on Test (just playing around to see how the builds did), the i13 PVP RV testing, and on Infinity - where I PvP rarely. Based on discussion and confessions in the thread I'd imagine that there's a bit of a different feel than there was last night in the 2-v-2 random partner tournament that I was in last night, where the trash talk was fairly lighthearted and obviously joking, and no comments about "you suck" appeared - even in the match where I and my partner were thoroughly pwnd 8-0 (or 10-1 in the second time I faced that same pairing in the finals).

If you want more people to PvP, you need to find ways to make PvP more appealing. Shoving a larger pool of people to run off into the server isn't going to help any - it just means that you get to alienate a larger population in order to keep the same few you have currently.

On Teaming
I've got 9 villains and 4 heroes on Guardian. Of the 4 heroes, only the Fire/Fire Blaster sees much playtime, while I play the villains relatively frequently (usually 2-3 nights a week). Why villains and not heroes? Because when I'm heroside I end up asking - on global, in broadcast, in tells to people who comment about lfm in global or broadcast - and rarely end up on a team... and often switching soon afterwards. When I do get on teams I end up having a great time, though; I started playing on Guardian heroside due to a planned team (the ill-fated Leviathan Guild, if any of you remember it) and stuck around because I liked the personalities.

In comparison, though, villainside I often get more invites than I can accept - either due to limited time or because I already arranged for a team. So I make more villains and let my heroes languish here, instead playing blueside on Infinity. I'm not a "redside snob" or a "blueside snob", I just don't play a MMO to solo: it's boring and repetitive, so I typically only solo when I'm on limited time.

So that's my take on the various side discussions. Now it's time to run off to class.

Oh, okay.... now I don't feel quite so bad about going 18-1 in 2 different rounds (with 2 different partners) against the two of you.

So 2nd place was for the team? I misread it the first time and thought it was for the winning team only... So what did I win (and when should I pick it up)?

I had a lot of fun as a last-minute entry.

I ended up switching before the bonus round was over, how did that go?

Variety, usually; and often it's simply a matter of when you want the powers available.

It's not necessarily that you simply can't have the powers; you have enough power choices (24) to get 3 fitness powers, hasten, 2 more for a non-ss travel power (I tend to use SJ because I like CJ) or 2 for the medicine pool (because you're going to get hit, even at the softcap), 6 powers from your primary (the harder hitting initial attack, Build Up, Assassin's Strike, Placate, 2 hard hitters), 3 fighting powers, 1 patron power, and 8 of the 9 powers from Super Reflexes.

But in so doing, you're pushing things back that you may want earlier in your build to make life easier while levelling up, and you're still not going to be softcapped all that early (compared to IOs, provided you get them below level 50). If you're going to play your character a lot at level 50 without exemping down below where you're softcapped, then it's a nonconcern. If you end up exemping down a fair amount (running Ouroboros missions for merits, for example) then you're likely to be considerably less happy with the power order.

Looking at the order that I was going to be taking the powers, and how that would affect the way I play, is why initially I avoided making a SR Stalker and went with Ninjitsu. I could get most of the functionality easier, earlier, and didn't have to waste a power pick in order to get a self-heal for when I do get hit. It also helped that I had a couple of Touch of Death sets sitting in base storage...

Yes, SR is cheap to softcap, but it's an already tight secondary on an already tight AT, and you're adding 3 pool powers above and beyond the typical travel/fitness.

That's the tradeoff.

I'm currently in Winter Park while attending school.

As for the concern - I was figuring it was probably on the way to the data center, but I already talked to Roadrunner about it and thought that if it was being looked at on both ends maybe there would be enough pressure to get something done.

I think I can safely guarantee that it's not a Cat5 cable - it's rather interesting when the netgraph on only one of the servers looks like a red bar code and on another (different datacenter) it looks fine.

Of course, when I filed a ticket on it, I was told that it's because my video drivers are out of date and I haven't installed all of the windows critical updates. Yes, because that's definately going to affect one server, from two computers (one of which is up to date)... I just stopped updating the ticket since they're going to keep throwing every excuse possible at me to keep from having to look into it themselves.

My guess, if it's not affecting everybody, is that it's GSP related, probably on the connection to the east coast datacenter (where Infinity is at, according to the wiki); the server that I'm not having trouble with is a west coast server, and I'm coming from cfl.rr.com.

My DM/Nin was the first Stalker I got to 50 - prior to the DM and Stalker buffs a while back. I think that it's not mentioned much because it's not an AoE-heavy primary (although it at least has one), and generally people want AoE for PvE play.

But yes, my experience matched yours rather well.

addressing random questions:

- Having mezzes in your attacks doesn't help you as a Stalker any more than it helps any other AT. Some of the secondary effects (read: -tohit in DM) are more useful for some secondary powersets (read: defense sets) than others, but in general the only thing that you ever need to worry about is the -recovery in Electric Melee or the extra DoT from certain other powers (MG, Spines) breaking Placate.

- Yes, Stalker builds are tight early on. If you have veteran attacks, you can get by with taking fewer primary attacks (I never would have played Spines without having both Sands of Mu and a Blackwand... in addition to letting me get rid of the fugly bananas). You'll still want to take Assassin's Strike at level 6, though.

- You asked about EM. It does "okay" - it's heavily reliant on ET and TF to remain at or near the top for single target damage, yes, but Bone Smasher and Energy Punch are still good DPA attacks early on, and you get ET at level 26. It's no worse many of the other sets through those levels... My EM/WP doesn't have any issues killing things, unless you count the time I killed myself with ET after a Tank Swiper caught me while it was animating.

- That said, I personally prefer DM, and Midnight's Grasp hits harder than ET or TF on a critical (ET doesn't critical, TF does ET-level damage, and MG hits for a full double damage critical). Siphon Life getting a damage boost also helps keep your hit points topped off, even if you don't bother slotting it for heal at all (I don't - ever since the buff it's an attack that happens to give me hp, not a heal that happens to do damage).

- Ninjitsu is actually one of the more forgiving secondaries as far as "essential" powers. Since your AoE and Ranged defense are on the same toggle, you can pick up 2 toggles to cover all 3 positions. The tricks (Caltrops, Smoke Flash, Blinding Powder, Retsu) are nice but not "essential" and building with some defense set bonuses in mind will get you soft-capped... if not easily, at least no more expensively than it is to softcap a Shield character.

- Speaking of soft-capping... take a look at Shadow Meld. You may decide that you don't need to be softcapped all the time if you can turn it on and off at will.

- If you're going Claws, skip Swipe. I'd make the same recommendation for a Scrapper, though - which has been my only experience with the set. Also keep in mind that later on lethal damage may frustrate, especially when running into robots where an AS critical won't even kill a minion.

- Since it was brought up earlier in the thread, being mezzed might suppress hide (I don't remember if it's non-damaging if it will or not) but, like other defensive toggles, it won't turn it off. Since it costs no endurance, that also means that it will stay on even if your endurance bottoms out. If you want it off, you either turn it off yourself or go get killed.

- Kidnap missions are evil. Player-targetted ambushes are annoying (since they're aggro on you immediately, they can attack even if you're in Hidden status). Sneaking around the map instead of staying with the team and fighting is bad. If you're with the team scrapping it out will work for you rather well.

- The Demoralize aspect of Assassin's Strike (ie, the unresistable -7.5% tohit and chance for mag 5 fear) works very well, especially on a defense secondary. But keep in mind that it only works if your target survives. There are many instances where not immediately killing one target will help you survive better than if they just disappeared immediately (especially if it's a fairly homogenous group like Council).

- Play the way you enjoy playing. No matter what AT it is, if you don't find anything fun about it, then it's going to suck. The best we can offer is advice, or maybe some number-crunching if you want to min-max, but you are the one that knows what you like - take everything said here with that in mind.

OSA + Scourge = Blizzard with no crash, for less initial endurance, at half the base recharge.

I'm thinking that it's not just WAI, it would be an exception even if other (non-Gale) secondary powers did Scourge. Then again, there have definately been some odd balance decisions IMO, so maybe it wouldn't have been.