SoilentGreen

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  1. Yeah, this issue looks like one of the best yet...was kind of hoping for a little customization to the powers at least, if not the forms themselves.
  2. See this

    Guess it must be for back-story reasons or some such...
  3. Would love if PB's and WS's would've been included into the customization...

    Other than that, bravo!
  4. My hopes for a customizable PB have been dashed!

    Ah well, it was a nice thought.
  5. SoilentGreen

    Dom "Fix"

    The difference is very negligible. After an hour or so, if I hadn't known there was a "fix" I wouldn't have been able to say there was one. Dom's are still dishing out quite a bit of damage.
  6. Gotta agree...despite the lower defensive values, I had a lot more fun on my Bane (and its second "huntsman" build) than I ever did on my Widow.
  7. As mentioned, the shields would be a waste of time, slots and power choices. If you are going for a tri-form build (my preference), then you'll be shifting far too often to get use out of the shields.
  8. SoilentGreen

    Brutes....

    Seems the toughest Brutes these days are of the /Fire variety. Healing Flames recharge can be brought down to ridiculously low levels which will make you a hard out. SS/ is still the primary of choice so far as I can see.
  9. I've had great fun playing my Elec/Shield and SS/Shield Brutes. I've pumped a lot of resources into both builds and find the differences in overall performance to be pretty negligible. I think the SS has the upper-hand on single-target damage, but not by a landslide.

    However, the reason I'm responding is because of this: I love my Battle Axe/Shield Brute for AoE goodness. This seems like a bit of an unconventional choice, but with a bunch of enemies packed in tightly (which I typically have), The AoE's keep going and going. Now, I realize that Footstomp has the superior radius and a short recharge, but Pendulum, Whirling Axe and Cleave recharging in ~5s with AAO and BU (not to mention Shield Charge) supplementing the damage, you make short work of large groups, and there is something really satisfying about slicing and dicing with a big axe.

    It may not be the min/max choice, but these quick charging AoEs leave a quick path of destruction behind you...
  10. We see things a little differently, but I've been around long enough to know that when one AT suddenly sees a huge surge in usage, effectiveness and kill rate in PvP, the devs aren't far behind 'reviewing' things.
  11. [ QUOTE ]
    Yea, I know, it's bullcarp, only Blasters should be able to 3-shot people from range. Dom's definately need nurfed into next Tuesday yo.....

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Believe what you want, but I'm not one to call for nerfs...however, I also don't believe any AT should be able to 3 shot anyone. It doesn't make for fun, balanced PvP.

    You can choose to ignore it, but eventually the devs have recognized imbalances like this and corrected them. Usually their 'corrections' have gone too far the other way. Hopefully that won't be the case for Dom's, but we'll see.

    There is a reason there are 10x the number of Dom's floating around zone PvP these days...you can say that they aren't broken, but play-testing with a number of friends and a few hours in zone (playing as one, and against several) suggests otherwise.
  12. [ QUOTE ]
    Have you seen any whine threads about Darth Ronin lately?


    [/ QUOTE ]

    LOL...actually, he's busy taking advantage of being uber-buffed with his 4 accounts and 3 shotting things with his newly-buffed Dom. Hold + Snipe + Blast and anything but a tank is in serious trouble. His 'Lift' is doing something in the area of 300 pts. of damage in SC.

    I like that Dom's got buffed, but it's no coincidence that you see swarms of them now in zone PvP...just like Widows in previous issues. Can't help but think there might be further adjustments than what was already discussed.
  13. LOL... you seem to be getting steamed, not me. It's not personal. I've been PvPing with my PB for over 2 years now, long before the latest wave of PB PvP'ers. I'm sure I know what I"m talking about.

    As for that slotting in the Nova form attacks...it would still be superior to any human form blast and it wouldn't be gimped. P.S. the Nova 'bolt' and Human 'bolt' have the exact same recharge and activation according to City of Data. All things being equal, you would be putting out twice the base damage with the Nova version.

    As for the price of powers/slots...it's personal preference, but you get much more bang for you buck out of heals than you do with shields in today's DR'd PvP.
  14. Saying Human attacks are better or equal because you can slot them full of procs doesn't address the true debate. You can do the same thing in a Nova blast and get higher base damage in addition to the proc damage. Add to that the faster recharge, to hit bonus and superior range and it's not a contest.

    As for the question about Dwarf...you get higher resistance values, a -range power, a huge amount of HP, and a heal that recharges quickly and provides a similar level of healing as does Essence Boost - all for the price of one power. That's how it is superior to "just" human form.

    Play how and what you want. All human is fun for you; go with it. I personally like having the 3 forms available and know how to use them in a given situation.
  15. Here is why human only is gimp:

    -Nova form. The amount of damage you can dish out in Nova form puts human form damage to shame. Quick recharging blasts that have huge range vs. decent melee attacks and mediocre (short) ranged attacks? Nova will win every time.

    -Dwarf form. A quick recharging self heal that can be used (even in aerial combat if you set up macros/binds correctly) is invaluable. You can sit and hover blast in Nova form, drop to human and pop a heal, and if things aren't going well hit Dwarf, hit the heal and use a bind to go back to human and auto-activate hover or fly and you don't lose any altitude.

    Yeah, I've seen a handful of human-only PB's that are decent, but their kill rate and survival aren't quite to the level of a good tri-former.

    As for build tips (for the OP) I'd max out Acc and Rech to get those heals up as quickly as possible. As mentioned before, some range bonuses are also nice to have. Other bonuses are nice to have (regen, damage, recovery etc.) but not as useful.

    Since DR kicked in, Dwarf isn't nearly as robust as it used to be. You could really take a beating in Dwarf before, but with DR the resistances are in the neighborhood of 45%, which helps a bit, but nothing near what it used to be. Additionally, escaping with Dwarf TP isn't an option any longer. I still have it for the heal and additonal HP.

    Tactics...well, it's a matter of personal preference and who your enemy is. I'll typically float around in human form until I spot my target, pop BU and go into Nova and blast away. You could couple this with the opener of BU + IS + (any other human attack) and then switch to Nova. It depends on how dirty you want to get your hands.

    You will need to be careful of those that can ground you with webnades or other -fly powers that overcome Nova's fly strength (or Hover). In these cases, I find switching to Dwarf is helpful to survive, or running Qfly until the effect wears off.

    Best advice I could give you is find a build you like, play with it, tweak it as you go and practice when to use your forms and when switching is appropriate. It's not always the best solution given the amount of time it takes to shift.
  16. Not sure this is my 'coolest', but I like the play on words:

    "Nuclear Thistle" is the name of my Plant/Rad...rhymes with missle...yadda yadda yadda
  17. Gotta disagree a little here...Endmods in the form + Frankenslotting will mean you can go indefinitely in Dwarf form and never see your end bar move. At least, that's been my experience.
  18. Do you have any ideas in mind for what you'll be doing to your PB / WS ?

    My PB has always had this white and gold motif and if they allow us, I'll be adding gold to some or all of the powers.

    The one thing I wonder is if they will allow us to tint the forms. I imagine that at least the aura around them will be tintable, but I guess we will see. This could be huge for those of us who don't want to look like every other PB/WS out there when we're transformed!
  19. SoilentGreen

    Is it possible?

    Possible? Yes.

    But...your blasts won't be as potent as the Nova blasts, and you'll not be anywhere as sturdy as you would be in Dwarf.

    However, the trade-off is that you have some pretty good melee powers and blasts, plus shields, a heal (or two) and access to use pool powers 100% of the time in human form. If you add that to a large team of 6+, the team-link bonuses will make you pretty tough to deal with.

    I personally would never go all-human, but it can be done and I"m sure it can be fun - which is the point to all this.

    I'd say play around with it, stick through those tougher low levels and I'm sure you can make it work and have fun with it.
  20. SoilentGreen

    Rate mah build

    Off the top of my head...

    The 3 slots in Incandescence seem wasted. The base resist value isn't high enough (in my opinioin) to even waste time slotting. I'd throw in a -KB IO in the base slot, or even have two slots with a -KB IO and a DamRes IO or even the Steadfast Unique (the +3% defense). Either way, I wouldn't put more than 1 or 2 slots there.

    With 3 human form shields and 2 leadership toggles running you're going to be hating life in terms of end management. You have no end reduction in the shields and only one in Assault. If you're intent on getting the human form shields, I'd probably frankenslot to get some end reduction in there - this could be even more effective overall with an additional slot in each. Even then, with assault running and end-heavy attacks, you may not be enjoying life too much. Personally, I'd drop the leadership toggles and free up the extra slots - especially since you seem to be devoting a lot of slots to Dwarf and will probably spend a good bit of time in that form.

    In fact, that leads me to ask you what your focus is on this build? If you are going to be using another form quite a bit, you're not going to want to be bothered with retoggling all the time. If this is a Dwarf-heavy build with some human use for "firepower", you might consider dropping the human shields all together and be more of a "regen" PB relying on EB, RE and Sublimation. You can get those to cycle through pretty quickly and I've found it to be very effective.

    Another quick note...you seem to be slotting some pretty pricey sets but come up short of some of the best bonuses by one or two enhancements...it doesn't make a lot of sense. For example, you have 4 Hecatomb in a power, and are missing out on the bonus for the 5th enhancement - 10% recharge bonus.

    I'd go back to the drawing board on this one.
  21. A certain PB finishes opponents off with Incandescent Strike in PvP with an accompanying "Piledriver!!!" in broadcast.
  22. PB's can be beautiful...if you pair the powers with the right combination of costume and aura it's very pleasing. The blasts are pure white light, the melee attacks follow suit. The heals are very nice and the self-sheilds all make for quite the combo. If you want something shiny, PB's are the way to go.
  23. I'd like to avoid a huge listing fee, so I'm entertaining offers. The market has the last 5 from 300 - 400.

    I'm on Freedom.

    PM to set up a purchase if you're interested.
  24. This is a pretty big deal actually - I'm going to have to test this out on my PB. Good catch.
  25. SoilentGreen

    Can PB PvP well?

    [ QUOTE ]
    bummer, I thought the switch and heal in Dwarf form would be awesome life saver if needed

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Actually, you are right. However you, need to learn when and how to use the switches to maximize their effectiveness. I would never recommend skipping Dwarf form. The heal recharges very quickly and provides another level of survivability. In fact, it can be used in aerial combat if you set up binds/macros correctly to drop the form and activate the appropriate travel power.

    Like many have said, I'd focus my build on the single-target Nova attacks and heals. Go for +rech and +acc in your bonuses and you'll be hitting everything.