Smiling_Joe
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Sigh.... another gimmick. You know what this means?
This means I'm gonna have to change my stance on adding more gimmicks to the archetype, because I FREAKIN' LOVE this suggestion! Seriously. Leo that suggestion is creative, well-thought, thematic and more than flexible enough to get around my "no moar gimmicks" personal cottage rule.
/signed a thousand times. I'll take all my suggestions back and delete one of my stalkers if we can get this. Well, maybe I'll just not play one of my stalkers for a while...
I only have one problem - why haven't you posted this in the so.... stalkers thread yet? Get hoppin', man! -
Quote:Wait, what? Are you really advocating they change the game mechanics (and the way eleven other archetypes play) just to accommodate stalkers?Originally Posted by Spiritchaser
Now: whatever route is chosen, it's still only half the fix
The other half is to refocus [edit] around 30% of game content to single target centred fights...
Large team spawns should have a chance to be able to be one single EB... and maybe a couple of minions
edited for a less unbalanced suggestion, but still, wouldn't it be good to hear a team say:
"Lets get another stalker or a MA scrapper and a psi blaster for more Single target damage"? I'd even settle for "MOAR ST NAU!"
While I applaud your chutzpah, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call shenanigans on that suggestion. -
Quote:Gotcha. I need to stop posting in the middle of the night - I'd misunderstand less.Originally Posted by Beelzy
I was just looking at examples where range or effective range for melee powers exceeded 7ft.
If 10ft already exists, then having AS as 10-12ft range would not make it a ranged attack. -
Quote:PBAoE's still have a range of 7 feet, and are thus still melee powers. The radius being 20 feet (for example) means that the power affects everything from 7 feet around the caster out to 20 feet. In other words, the focal point for the power is melee range, but the effects of the power stretch out 20 feet. By contrast, a power with a 20 foot range can place the focal point for the power at any point from 7 feet out to 20 feet, with a radius that begins at the focal point.Originally Posted by Beelzy
Smiling Joe,
I think that we can all agree that nobody would like AS to be converted into ranged. I was just suggesting a way that may be easier than actually shifting the stats.
That being said, there are PBAoEs with radii of 20 (Fire Sword Circle, Shield Charge, Lightning Rod, among others) and regular melee attacks with ranges up to 10 (Headsplitter, Golden Dragonfly, etc). They are not in the ranged damage category, it would be difficult to put AS with a range of 12 in said category.
I also like the idea of allowing AS in motion, although this may PO some non-stalker PVPers... having a motion threshold may be workable though. If you move less than say 5 during the cast you should be fine. This will compensate for drift and minions walking into you.
Headsplitter and Golden Dragonfly, however, are in the same category as Cleave. All of these powers are also very narrow cones.
My original thought was 10 feet range to be in line with those powers, and it may be that 10 would be a better number. That's something that's hard to quantify on paper. -
Quote:Good catch - The changes to stalkers that affected that table are an increase in their melee damage modifier from the .9 to 1 and increasing the base hitpoint modifier from .95 to 1.125.Originally Posted by Gilia
I don't believe the numbers in that table are quite right. If they are, Mid's and the Wiki are wrong. Stalker's melee modifier is 1, and the ratio on those Hitpts modifiers puts stalkers with 76% the HP of a Scrapper, but these other sources put it at 89%. Those are just two I noticed glancing at it, and I'm not sure if there's more.
Perhaps this table predates Stalkers being reworked?
I edited the post to reflect this. Thanks! -
Quote:I am very much in favor of the planned critical. When I want to tear off in a red haze of random fury I'll play one of my many scrappers. I like the tactical mindset of planned criticals, and when I'm in that mood I'd rather play stalkers.Originally Posted by Jibikao
Do you guys feel that Stalker should be more about "planned Critical" than "random Critical"? Random critical is nice in a way that you don't need to think about it but that's also Scrapper's category.
Having said that, I can accept that the scaling criticals can be planned. When I look around and see my team in close range I'll know to focus on the biggest target there because of the increased critical chance, and I can accept that for what it is, so long as that is as random as it gets.
I'm against increasing the crit radius for the same reason, however.
I would hate to see yet another bar added to another archetype's UI, and I am dead set against any further "gimmickie" additions to our archetype.Quote:To me, I would rather see a bar that fills up to fuel Stalker's "Killer Instinct". When the "instinct" is full, Stalker can unleash a planned Critical hit, much like Placate. And this Killer Instinct bar fills up quicker with more party members (which improves Stalker in a team setting).
I know this idea won't fly but I like it! This way my Stalker can plan out who should receive critical = who should die faster! This bar thing sounds complicated to implement and it may interfer with Placate. I never like Placate that much anyway. I never take Placate until I am way past lvl 26. I sometimes don't like blinding the target with Placate. I want the aggro to stay on me but I have no control of the "blind" part. It would be nice if we can have an ability to control Critical(s) during Battle and not just during Hidden.
Scrapper is all about raw damage and random criticals. Fine.
Brute is all about maintaining fury to deal more damage. Fine.
Tanker is all about controlling the situation by taking damage for the team. Fine.
Stalker should be all about "eliminating target(s)" ASAP in a "planned" situation. When your Killer Instinct is up, your next attack is a critical and it can follow the same formula for aoe/cone. I don't want a "button" like Domination to activate. I just need an icon to show me when Killer Instinct is up because I can control which attack I want to use when the icon shows up.
However, what if we did away with the team-dependent crit radius in favor of a scaling and stackable chance to crit after every successful hit? Sort of the way that defiance 2.0 buffs a blaster's damage with each attack?
Eh. Sounds awful gimmickie, but if it comes in place of the team-dependent crits.... ?
...But then what about teaming incentive? Bah. It's been a long day and I'm obviously too tired to brainstorm. Let me think on that one a bit before I put it in the suggestions thread.
Regardless of what I say, though, Jib, toss the Killer Instinct Bar over in that thread as well. You never know! -
Quote:Somewhere in the guides section Iakona has a great guide with archetype modifiers in it, and if you find it you'll see that - in terms of mitigation - scrappers only exceed stalkers in the area of self heals and base hit points. Here's the numbers: EDIT - changed to reflect I12/I13 changesOriginally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Here I disagree, and this is why:
Sustained damage we are behind scrappers and blasters, but after i18 I believe brutes fell just behind us (except for a very few very expensive builds). Survival wise, we are behind the scrapper and brute and ahead of the blaster. AoE wise we are dead last. We have burst, but with aim + build up + nuke, blasters have better burst in an AoE form. All we contribute to a team is damage, but there are better options. We need to contribute something more. If the brute is the survivable damage, the blaster is the aoe fragile damage, the scrapper is the balanced damage, why pick the single-target, second worst damage, second worst survivability option? We need something. We're not THAT far behind, it is true, but we are behind in several categories and that is where it hurts, and that is why the reputation exists.
Stuns, fears, knockbacks, confuses and holds, pretty much anything else mitigation-wise, scrappers and stalkers are dead equal. Stalkers have hide and placate in every single set. Scrappers don't. Almost an even trade, mitigation-wise, with a slight edge given to scrappers in the base hit point department. This means that - when compared to scrappers - sets without mitigation beyond heals are the only ones that really fall behind. So that leaves stalkers behind in AoE damage and slightly behind in consistent single target damage.Quote:Code:The following Modifiers vary by level Mod Bl Con Def Scrap Tanker Khld Brute Stalk MasterM Domnatr Coruptr HitPts 1.13 0.95 0.95 1.25 1.75 1 1.4 1.13 0.75 0.95 1 MaxHP 1 1 1 1.5 2 1.5 2 1 1 1 1 MELEE Damage 1 0.55 0.55 1.13 0.8 0.75 0.75 1 0.55 0.75 0.75 KheldSS --- --- --- --- --- 0.85 --- --- --- --- --- Heal 0.9 1.1 1.25 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.1 1.1 0.9 HealSlf 1.13 0.95 0.95 1.25 1.75 1 1.4 0.95 0.75 0.95 1 Stun 0.8 1.25 1 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 1 1 0.8 Immobil 0.8 1.25 1 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 1 1 0.8 Sleep 0.8 1.25 1 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 1 1 0.8 Knockbk 1 1 1 1 1.25 1 1.25 1 1 1 1 Fear 0.8 1.25 1 1 1 0.9 1 1 1 1 0.8 ResBool 0.8 0.8 0.8 1 1.25 0.9 1 1 0.8 0.8 0.8 RANGED Damage 1 0.55 0.65 0.5 0.5 0.63 0.5 0.6 0.55 0.65 0.75 KheldSS --- --- --- --- --- 1.2 --- --- --- --- --- Heal 0.9 1.1 1.25 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1 1 1.1 HealSlf 1.13 0.95 0.95 1.25 1.75 1 1.4 0.95 0.75 0.95 1 Stun 0.8 1.25 1 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 1 1 0.75 Immobil 0.8 1.25 1 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8 1 0.8 Sleep 0.8 1.25 1 8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8 1 0.8 Knockbk 0.8 1 1 1 1.25 0.9 1.25 1 0.8 1 0.8 Fear 0.8 1.25 1 1 1 0.9 1 1 0.8 1 0.8 ResBool 0.7 1 1.25 0.7 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.75 0.75 1
Now, the argument could be made that our tradeoff for being behind in damage at all is the ability to surgically direct that damage, but that's a strawman that overstates our damage-directing ability, and so single target damage needs to pull ahead of that of the scrapper by a significant amount.
There's more than one way to skin a Skul. You can do it by directly raising all of the stalker's damage via the modifier or you can do it by giving the stalker high enough and consistent enough damage spikes that the total difference will be noticeable.
I'm in favor of the latter, and thus my unequivocal support for more crit damage. How much more is something best determined by someone besides me.
In other words, it isn't enough that we simply have our damage increased; there's something to be said for the way it is increased.
Allowing sniper sets to be slotted into AS - and moreover having them actually able to affect aspects of the power that are traditionally considered something exclusively given to sniper powers (like range and interrupt) is pretty much turning AS into an extremely short range sniper power, verses a melee power that has bonus damage like a snipe. In other words, it would likely then be using the ranged damage modifier instead of the melee modifier, and we DON'T want that.Quote:I agree 100% on it being interruptable, and I also like the idea and what happens with allowing sniper sets and letting the power take range enhancements. Seems like an easy fix, which also will cut prices on stalker builds since sniper sets are cheap =) Win win. heh.
Whether simply increasing its range makes it a ranged power is actually something I'm worried about - and it may make the suggestion void. I'm thinking there's some play, using Battle Axe's Cleave as a model, but that might also entail making AS a very narrow cone.
See what I said above about my concerns with increasing the range. Hopefully, if there isn't leeway with the range of a melee power (without changing melee range as a whole) then it may solve the issue by turning it into a narrow cone like Cleave.Quote:Now, on the initial interrupt, I wonder if it would be possible to make the 2 seconds start just a server tick or two AFTER you hit the power, as a kludge to compensate for the server lag? Probably too messy a solution. I think the extra range would solve it anyway.
That may be going a bit too far, pushing the power into the "ranged" criteria and sticking us with a smaller modifier.Quote:Set base range equal to (enlarged) range of the crit radius, then allow sniper sets? Yes? No? Maybe? -
It looks to me like you're only going to use dwarf as an oh shite form, staying principally in human and nova. Not really my playstyle but the build looks pretty solid.
You've got enough recharge to chain radiant strike/incandescant strike/solar flare with a gleaming blast thrown in to fill the gaps, so mez should be your only real enemy in human form.
But if you're not going to slot any of your other attacks in dwarf form I'd recommend taking that slot out of white dwarf flare and putting another performance shifter proc in nova, given that stamina won't carry over into the forms.
The other thing you might consider is swapping out something in the upper levels for pulsar for the extra mitigation, taking a second slot from light form and slotting both slots in pulsar for accuracy. I'd put quantum flight on equal importance with pulsar, as well as conserve power, since you took stamina. You may want to keep conserve power for dawn strike's crash, however.
Speaking of light form, if you're going to have the shields up any extra resistance you slot in light form will be largely redundant. Better to slot the power with three recharge.
And if you're going to put an enhancement at all in white dwarf's taunt, then put an accuracy in it.
That's about all the advice I can give this build - looks very good. -
/em salute
Nice stalking, and good to hear. -
I posted way up in this thread during the closed beta, but have since given further changes to stalkers some thought (not the least because of my recent discussions with Leo).
First, I am going to say right off the bat that I'm skeptical of any changes that give us yet another secondary effect added to AS or any other power. With random criticals and scaling percentages on those random criticals tied to team members in range, both a fear and a to-hit effect that is applied to an unsuccessful AS, Hide-based criticals, a small chance for criticals on held/slept opponents (Still there according to city of data), and a placate in every primary, we're in danger of becoming the gimmick kings IMHO. We need improvement. Not more gimmicks.
I also do not think stalkers need help in surviving or soloing. We have all the tools we need for that now. Teaming could use some improvement, but I don't think stalkers are far out of line there, either.
Rather than adding secondary effects on top of the secondary effects we can already achieve, I would like to see stalkers have more flexibility towards using their entire primary sets in more situations. There are too many circumstances where stalkers have to default to one strategy to the exclusion of the other, those strategies being: (1)AS/Placate/Crit/Rehide and (2)scrap with the other >weaker damage< attacks. Giving stalkers the ability to leverage more variety in their tactics.
That out of the way, these are the suggestions I can get behind:
Increase our burst damage specifically - leave the damage modifier alone. The following suggestions are great ideas for upping burst damage without infringing on scrapper territory by also increasing our ability for sustained damage:
Leo G's suggestion of more damage to our crits. Give us bonus crit damage. Make our critical hits HURT.
Upping Build UP to 100% damage buff from the 80% we now have.
Enlarging the teamed crit radius. I could honestly go either way on this. On the one hand I don't really like the notion of anything that encourages scrapperlock on a stalker - specifically, the desire to run off and take on spawns on your own apart from the team. Stalkers running off and doing their own thing when teamed was one of the reasons why the radius was kept so small in the first place. ON THE OTHER HAND, a stalker shouldn't have to depend on other players not doing the same thing (leaving the stalker's crit radius in a scrapperlocked haze) to get the increase in burst damage. So if the radius were increased I woudn't complain.
Instead of adding more secondary effects, make the secondary effects we have more consistent. -regen and -resistance have been thrown around several times, and I while I like the concept, I don't see any more secondary effects added without incurring a cost I'd not be willing to pay. When asked about the lack of accuracy in Kinetic Melee during closed beta, Castle's (paraphrased) response was"
"Knockdown? Check. Ranged attacks in a melee set? Check. -damage effects? Check. A unique rage-like damage buff power? Check. Something had to suffer."
Bearing that in mind, make AS's demoralize power that it grants to the target a PBAoE. That way it affects surrounding mobs even if the target dies.
Call it a day for utility improvements.
I think we should get more use out of Asassin's Strike. I can hear Leo groan from here, but bear with me.
Decrease the activation to match the interrupt time. After some thought, I'll swing over to Leo's way of thinking and agree that it should be interruptible. Leo had a good point with pvp balance and the ability to interrupt an attack with unresistable critical damage, but that's not the sole reasoning. It's a melee sniper attack. It might be part of the left over thinking behind Stalkers as melee blasters with mez protection that pre-dates the I12 changes, but that interruptibility is what balances out the bonus damage.
Bearing that in mind, I think the accuracy should be increased to 1.386 to match the highest accuracy snipe that blasters get (aimed shot). Ranged sniper attacks get extra damage from build-up (or aim, I forget) and pay for that with the interrupt time, but the extended animation time is paid for by increased accuracy. But there's a third balancing factor - range. A blaster can fire off a sniper attack from range and not have to worry as much about it being interrupted due to stray aggro. A stalker is in melee range and has to worry about that, but a stalker is also hidden. Thematically, a stalker is right frickin' there aiming his or her claw/sword/power-laden fist at point blank range. I would think it would be rather hard to miss after aiming for that long. Just sayin'.
Continuing along those lines, I'd like to see the range of AS increased to 12 feet. I want this for one reason. The single biggest problem with using AS on teams are all the conditions for actually landing an assassination in the first place. Never mind the activation time; the interrupt time is the biggest culprit of its limited and situational teaming uses.
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of those interrupts come when the power is activated right after running up to the target. What happens is this: You race the brute/scrapper/blapper to your target, pressing the "w" key for all your worth, because you know if you just hit "follow" the mob will indirectly screw up your assassination attempt when it inevitably moves (causing you to follow and interrupt your own AS) to attack your team. So you run up, hitting build up on your way there, and then let your finger off the "w" key as you enter melee range and cue up AS. The animation starts, but the power is interrupted. Why? Because the server side hasn't registered that you've stopped moving before you hit the power. That means you have to pause for a half second to a second between your stopping and mashing the AS key.
By increasing the range to 12 feet, you're giving the stalker the ability to stop running - oh, half a second or so - sooner and have the flexibility to pause long enough to get the AS activating before the target moves out of range.
It might seem like a small change (then again it might not) but it would have a huge effect on a stalker's ability to get an AS off on a team.
Now, the argument needs to made that any range increase might overpower AS in pvp. I'm not the best pvp'er in the world, but I can say from experience that AS is pretty much good for killing (1)inexperienced pvp'ers who are caught standing around without increased perception, (2)a squishy who's been held or incapacitated already, or (3)a melee'er who's distracted enough by a fite club situation that they just don't pay any attention to anything outside their immediate foe. In all three cases an extra five feet of range wouldn't really be needed.
The one situation I can see it causing problems in pvp is in the case of a really skilled stalker who can reliably predict where a moving opponent is going to pass, get there before them, stop and activate AS as their opponent gets into range, allowing it to go off after they pass. A stalker skilled enough to do that doesn't need five extra feet of range, but it might allow less skilled stalkers to pull off the same trick.
I'm not one hundred percent on this, though, so someone with more pvp experience than me can feel free to set me straight.
That's pretty much it. If stalkers could get just some of those changes, I'd be ecstatic. If they didn't get them all, I'd still be ecstatic. If all they did was give us extra damage on our crits, I'd be over the moon. Like I said, I don't think stalkers need that much of a boost. -
Quote:Don't know how I missed this post for so long, Soto, sorry about that! - This macro will do everything you requested for the first macro(but keep reading for my recommendation):Originally Posted by Big_Soto
I am a macro type of guy and I was wondering if anyone has a macro for my PB? I need one macro to toggle on Shining Shield, Thermal Shield, and Quantum Shield. Then I need a second Macro to toggle on Acrobatics, Super Speed, Super Jump, and Tactics. Thinking of dropping a power to pick up Dwarf. Thanks for your help.
~Big Soto~
/macro 1 "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_toggleon quantum shield$$powexec_name thermal shield$$powexec_auto shining shield"
In addition to dropping you to human form and swapping your bottom tray to the tray with the human powers, what it does is use three separate and distinct command strings to indirectly call up all three shield toggles. Powexec_name will activate it directly, Powexec_toggleon sets the toggle status of another to on (indirectly activating it) and powexec_auto changes the status of the third shield's autofire feature to "on" (also indirectly activating it).
A word of warning whenever you're using powexec_auto - hitting it the first time will set the auto status to "on" but the second time you need it it will set that to "off" and so shining shield won't fire. You will likely be better off to set shining shield to autofire by control-clicking it manually and leaving that part out of the macro as follows:
/macro 1 "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_toggleon quantum shield$$powexec_name thermal shield"
Otherwise if you need the macro more than once in a match you'll have a real mess on your hands.
The second macro you need might also be problematic, depending on your playstyle. It takes some setup. Start with this:
/macro 2 "powexec_toggleon Acrobatics$$powexec_name tactics"
Now, you can do one of two things: you can edit your macro or you can utilize some binds. I recommend the latter but let's start with the first:
Right click the macro in your tray and select the "edit macro" option. Don't know if you've ever edited a macro before, but this part is a little.... finicky... so the less keys you hit the better.
Anyway, when you select "edit macro" you'll see the little popup window appear with your command string in it. Notice there are no longer quotes around your commands. Click the end of the command string one time to place your cursor there and paste the following in (probably best if you don't type it in):
$$bind w "+forward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind space "+up$$powexec_toggleon super jump"
Once that's in place at the end of the macro, the entire command string should look like this:
powexec_toggleon Acrobatics$$powexec_name tactics$$bind w "+forward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind space "+up$$powexec_toggleon super jump"
Hit the "Okay" button to save the changes. What this extra bit does is - instead of activating the travel toggles outright - binds the keys you would use to travel so that they activate the powers for you on demand, leaving them on until you switch forms again.
A better option IMHO would be to just go ahead and bind those keys permanently. Paste this string into your chat window:
/bind w "+forward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind s "+backward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind a "+left$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind d "+right$$powexec_toggleon super speed"$$bind space "+up$$powexec_toggleon super jump
This way, regardless of whether those powers are running and regardless of which movement key you hit you will toggle the relevant movement power on and leave it on until you switch to dwarf form.
However, this might only be desirable if your pb is exclusively pvp. You might not want those keys permanently bound to travel powers for pve, and what I did for my pvp/e toons was use two more macros:
/macro pve "unbind w$$unbind a$$unbind s$$unbind d$$unbind space"
Now for the pvp macro you'll have to edit as above. Start with:
/macro pvp bindloadfile c:\pvp.txt
and put the following on your c: drive in a text file named "pvp":
w "+forward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"
s "+backward$$powexec_toggleon super speed"
a "+left$$powexec_toggleon super speed"
d "+right$$powexec_toggleon super speed"
space "+up$$powexec_toggleon super jump"
And done.
I know I presented a lot of options, but I wanted to be as thorough as I could in the hope that you would find something that worked best for you. Let me know if you need any more help.
My recomendations are in bold, and should leave you with the following:
One macro called "1" that will drop dwarf form and toggle your thermal and quantum shields on
Shining Shield manually set to auto fire
One macro called "2" that will toggle on your tactics and acrobatics on
One macro called "pvp" that will load up the file pvp.txt from your c drive and bind all your movement keys to toggle the relevent travel power on
One macro called "pve" that unbinds all movement keys.
Hope I wasn't too confusing. If you need any more help let me know.
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Quote:This. We have limited animation customization of some sets' individual powers through the use of alternate sets at creation (like martial arts' and super strength's alternate punch animations) so why not give us alternate pet sets?Originally Posted by RiverOcean
I hear what you're saying..I want this too. Not customizable pets per se, but the ability to "skin" the pets with existing NPCS. Kind of like an AOE halloween costume toggle.
For example, Mercs could easily use Council or Malta sets just by swapping out henchmen with minion costumes using the same code as the costume toggle.
Ninjas could use Tsoo minions, using the Ancestor Spirit for the higher tier pet and corresponding minions for the other two tiers.
Thugs could use Hellions or - even easier - Trolls (with the supa troll for the Enforcer)
Demon Summoners could use CoT Behemoth and Behemoth Overlord Models.
Bots could use the old Praetorian clockwork models - or the new, for that matter.
Zombies could use.... well, there's the problem. What is the in-game equivalent of a lich or a grave knight that could be easily substituted? -
Quote:Breaking Line of Sight can and does interrupt AS after the animation has started, so if you're herding a mob around a nearby corner I can see how that would interrupt your bud's AS on occasion.Originally Posted by KalAmary
Bit of a noob question, but it's become a point of contention ...
In what ways can Assassin Strike be interrupted?
A SG mate of mine gets annoyed when I enter a spawn with my brute BEFORE their AS, claiming it wrecks it.
(chance for crit only, not full AS)
I contend that once the AS is started, only movement by the stalker itself or AoE damage would interrupt it, not any initial movement of the target. I also don't want them to get creamed by a partial alpha from the aggro.
Can anyone give me a good analysis of AS mechanics? What's the best way to coordinate an attack?
Autohit AoE's like caltrops and glue patches will also interrupt an AS every time, so if you're attacking foes like Longbow (Glue Grenade), Malta (Acid mortars) or Tsoo (Caltrops) - off the top of my head - and if you're not running to the opposite side of the spawn as your stalker then it's likely that the mobs that throw those powers are catching your stalker in their AoE, and even though the AS is animating it will interrupt it.
The most likely culprit, however, is you rushing in at the same time as your friend to attack the same boss. Brute players (myself included when I'm on my brute) like to start with the biggest bag of hitpoints in the spawn because we can let the minions wail on us to build up fury while we kill the boss, and then and one and two-shot the minions for dessert.
Stalkers also see the biggest bag of hit points as their prime target, so I'd be willing to bet that you're both charging the same target. Now this isn't something either of you should have to worry about - the cause of the problem lies in the game's movement mechanics. See, when a stalker rushes in to hit AS, we have two options with regard to getting to our target: hit F for follow (and relying on the game's engine)or whatever our favored movement key is (W, in most cases - relying on our own judgement) to get us into range and stopped long enough to hit the attack.
If your friend is hitting "Follow" to get to his target, tell him to stop it, because his target will immediately close on you when you enter, pulling his following toon along and interrupting the AS through the stalker's own motion.
If your friend is running in by holding down W and relying on his eye-hand coordination and reflexes to get him in ranged and stopped long enough to hit AS. What happens then is something that's beyond either of your control. Namely, his finger moves from the movement key to the AS key faster than his toon can stop moving, resulting in a half-second or so from the time when the movement key is released that AS will - if activated - be interrupted by the server, which thinks the stalker is still in motion. So the answer is to pause and wait for the toon to visually stop moving before cueing AS. When that happens, many times the target has moved out of melee range to attack you, the brute, forcing your stalker pal to relocate and try again.
The best advice for your friend is to open with another move besides AS, placate the boss you're punching and then build-up/AS while the boss is already aggroed to you. Situational caveats regarding to caltrops and similar powers apply. YMMV. -
>gag!< That's the foulest smoke bomb EVER!
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Quote:The good news is, you've given me an idea for a new "shave and a haircut" battlecry bind.Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
It's so bad, they then had to go out of the way to make it worthwhile by adding a defense buff to it just to prevent it from being an automatic death sentence while you're twirling around in the air shooting butterflies and giving the bad guys a hair cut and a close trim with bullets that only have a 60% chance of actually doing anything.
And any power that gives me a random chance of shooting butterflies is win with me - second only to the suggestion to have a "BANG!" flags ammo type.
I do love the power, but is it wrong that my favorite use of it comes during the 52 card pickup part of the /em cardtrick animation? -
Quote:I think the OP's anger was not at getting attacked, but at getting sucker punched by a "friend" after apparently lured into a PVP zone under what appears to be false pretenses.Originally Posted by FitzSimmons
Well RV is a pvp zone so just shake it off and schedule another time to do it on the server you're on.
But to answer your other question yes Liberty is dead enough in the pvp zones where you have a very good chance of getting it without being "omg attacked!" in a PVP ZONE!
That's sarcasm, stop ******** if you get attacked in a pvp zone. Just attack back or leave the zone and try again some other time. I wouldn't necessarily transfer just for that badge.
Good luck with it.
I'd be pissed too. Just not at PVP in general. -
The architecture of caves lends itself very well to a player's survival against crazy odds, IMHO.
Outside of those natural chokepoints, however, you've got fire and aggro from all sides. It isn't just about the drop in firepower that comes from skipping the minions; you'd also be experiencing a drop in resistance via the lack of bodies with which to share damage with bodyguard mode. -
BLASPHEMY!! BURN THE HERETIC!
...Oh wait. That's the Arsonist, isn't it?
DEBUFF THE HERETIC'S DEFENSE!
Meh. It's just not the same.
In all seriousness - insert the standard line about the game not being balanced around IO's - the fact that you can improve a set with IO's to the point that it's on par with the rest of the sets is not an argument for not buffing it, IMO.
I know "it can be killer" =/= "on par with," but the results of adding Achilles' Heel proc's are limited by the fact that the proc doesn't stack. -
Mercs/Storm - Col. Tempest
Soldiers: Alfonso, Ferdinand
Medic: Trinculo
Spec Ops: Prospero, Caliban
Commando: The Bard -
Quote:You have a deal.Originally Posted by Microcosm
Oh, and if you added -res to pb's, shades should get -tohit
Thematic and useful.
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Quote:And if you do take group fly supremacy+defense debuffs will help negate the tohit debuff that comes with it(Tactics helps even more)Originally Posted by Jibikao
3. You can position Hurrican while your pets fight. (Merc/storm is excellent)
And the stuns stack well.
Yeah, I love my mercs/storm. -
Storm/Electric doesn't even make the list?
A procced out storm/elec/elec defender may not give stormtastic damage, but there are different definitions of power. Slot the chance to stun proc in short circuit and ball lightning, combine with thunderclap, lightning storm and tornado to keep entire spawns staggering around half dead with no end. Throw in a thunderstrike from the APP and Voltaic Sentinel for a little damage.
If I'd had it to do over, however, I'd have waited for Going Rogue and rolled with an Elec/Storm Controller and let the gremlins do all the heavy lifting. -
Chemical ammo's -damage noticeably helped my blaster with tough and temporary invulnerability from the force APP when going up against warwolves on Unai Kensai's arc.
EDIT - too bad I didn't need that tactic much outside of that arc -
Quote:Unless this is a pvp thing this is wrong. There are binds that can "execute" more than one power. You just can use "Powexec_name" to execute more than one power in a straight non-toggle bind.Originally Posted by Deus
each bind can only execute one power.
Toggle binds (binds that include "+down or +forward or +direction as the first element in the string) will execute two powers; one on key press and one on key let-up. If you use powexec_name it will activate one and deactivate the other, but if you use Powexec_toggleon it will toggle both powers on, provided you follow the general rule of thumb that you press the key all the way down and let it come all the way back up before mashing the next key. It's possible that this could conflict with situations - like PvP - where multiple key combinations are being mashed in rapid succession, but YMMV.
You can also combine Powexec_toggleoff, Powexec_toggleon, Powexec_name and Powexec_auto in one key to activate up to three powers, provided one of those three is a toggle. This is because they are in effect doing three different things: one sets the status of a toggle power to active, one sets the "automatic" trigger to active, and the third just straight-up activates the power as though the player had clicked on it.
The usual caveats apply when setting any power to auto. You might want to see some of the binds players have come up with in the link in my sig. My favorite most recent bind is the one that toggles off a form (like dwarf form) long enough to activate a power and then toggles the form back on with the press of one key. -
Zem, let me quote myself from a couple of posts up with regard to the post you're quoting:
Quote:I was talking about what *I thought* would have been some of the good aspects had they gone a different route than random criticals back in I-12, but it was never meant to be a suggestion. If for some strange reason you're still curious about how I'd respond you can always send me a pm, but it really won't add anything to the discussion at hand.Originally Posted by Smiling_JoeDon't bother picking that garbage apart - it wasn't intended to be a suggestion, or anything. Not worth debating.
I should probably just delete that post.