Sparkshot

Li!!! I had no idea that Canine was your forum name. It's been so long since I poked around on here that I've forgotten everything. I knew I knew that name, though!

I haven't forgotten *you* though, no fear. I do a little wave every time I slip into my own little room on the TS server.

Glad to hear your back is feeling better! Hope you're back on your feet soon (or by now, even!).

Happy gibbering!

Heya!

Yes, I'm back and playing again! At the moment, I'm planning to stick around for a while. Thanks to the timezone issue (I moved to Australia) it's hard to meet up with folks, but I'll do my best!

Sorry to hear about your back! Hope it gets better soon. I have an EeePC, and I love it. That's what I do all my writing on at the moment.

Take care!

Oh, awesome! A thread, just for us.

We do have a base with some handy amenities for players - we're working on expanding it at the moment. Come along, get involved, have some fun!

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me or @Rhygar a line in-game. Hope to talk to you all soon!

Personally, I use hover for knockback protection on my kin defender. It's also useful for migitating the craziness of triple-stacked siphon speed in battle, and for hovering overhead for easier targetting with transfusion, etc.

For me, IR acts as the main travel power, and hover is handy to glide over the bits I don't want to land in (purple mobs, I'm looking at you). Superspeeders tend to love you if you IR them, too, I find, though I make a point of not doing it without warning/asking.

Personally, I relish the chance to pick up other useful powers. Same with not having to pick up stamina on a kinetic - that's three more power slots to play with! Yay!

With my ninja/dark MM, I really notice when my toggles drop (I run assault and tactics). Things do seem to drop faster when they're up.

With my thugs/poison, I'm probably going to skip the leadership pool, as the enforcers will do most of that buffing for me and it gives me other options. I might pick it up later, but I doubt it.

With regard to the pistols, I'm probably going to respec the first attack out and just keep the second one around for those rare times that I'm twiddling my thumbs in a battle. [img]/uk/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] After picking up the enforcer, I find that I don't need to attack anywhere near as much. Go uzis. (why can't I have an uzi?)

My ninja/dark MM (34) doesn't have stamina, and runs 3-4 toggles constantly (assault, tactics, SF, DN). Don't have any problems except in longer fights or if I have to resummon a lot mid-battle. To be honest, I love the chance to have more powers to play with, and I'm willing to put up with a bit of blue-popping to get that.

I have recently started a thugs/poison MM, and I'm finding the poison set to be a bit heavier on the end so far (only lvl 14). I'm aiming for a staminaless build - and with the enforcers, I'm probably going to skip the leadership pool this time - but we'll see how it goes. [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

My new MM is thugs/poison, called Alleyne. Only lvl 11 right now, but her boys will be called:

Punks: Ballz, Bayonets
Arsonist: Brigade
Enforcers: Too, Pretty
Bruiser: To Die

A cookie to anyone who gets the reference. [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Sounds good. I will definitely try to be there with someone!

I just picked up the Spelunker mission on one of my defenders (Dawntreader). As there's a chance that I might be going out tonight (OMG outside world with PEOPLE ), I'll aim to do it tomorrow about 7pm. If anyone wants the badge (for the Atlas Medallion accolade), just drop a tell to @sparkshot around then.

Congrats to everyone who was there! Glad to hear it went well. Hopefully by the next raid, I'll have a toon high enough to join in!

I used siphon speed as the travel power on my defender until lvl 18, when I picked up IR. Have to be careful who you siphon off, and missing is a pain, but to be honest, I'm glad to have the extra power slots for other powers.

My little kinetic also has hover, which is almost as fast as fly with three flight speed slots and siphon speed stacked on top. She really has no problems getting around. If it's too tricky to siphon speed, she can always bounce. I'm loving the other power choices too much to miss a pool travel power.

Just as a note - your pet has the repel field. The singularity is also intangible, so you can go stand inside him if you want to watch mobs bounce away (or run through him if you're being chased). And this way, it doesn't cost you any end! Repel is end-heavy if you're bouncing a lot off it.

Propel is great fun, but I find that I seldom have time to use it in a team. The mobs are usually dead before the animation has finished. Soloing, it's a good addition to an attack chain. Smacking someone with a pool table is always fun.

The group immob is good, especially if you're teamed with a blaster who has rain of somethingannoying or you want to keep mobs huddled for mass-debuffing purposes (such as fulcrum shift).

I think of the ones you have listed there, repel is the one you are best to miss out.

My troller needs to do the Moonfire TF! Sign IX up for that, pretty please.

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Confession of the day: I have SherkSilver's Hero Builder installed on my work computer, and it's used often enough that it appears in the first section of Windows XP start menu

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Me too! I also have the standalone costume creator on my work computer. ...not that I ever use it while I'm supposed to be working. Nor do I browse/post on the forums. Um. Yeah. Shh.

[ QUOTE ]
Not wanting to insult anyone, but surely will: Is the Defender AT more fun for those who can't keep up with being a Controller?

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My main is a controller, but I love my defenders too. They require a slightly different playstyle, so it does depend on how you like to play.

If you want something active, you can't go wrong with kin, rad or dark. Empaths can also be very active, but they're more team-centric - if you want to affect the mobs as well as your team, go for something debuffy. Personally, I feel more useful if I'm helping to battle the mobs, rather than just helping my team to battle the mobs (if you get my meaning). That's a personal preference, though.

That's also why I prefer to use the blasts that carry secondary effects with them, such as rad, dark and sonic. As a defender, you're not going to do as much damage as most (all?) of the other ATs can, but if you can add in a nice debuff while you're chipping off their health, bonus! Every little helps, I believe, and if there is a gap in the need to use my primary, then I'm always blasting away.

If you're looking for something controllery, then I think dark/dark is the closest you'll get in the defender sets. And you'll never be without something to do if you're playing a kinetic. Give a different powerset a try! I hope you find something more to your liking.

Thanks for the replies, guys! That's helped a lot.

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Smoke flash : it's awesome, i recently got it with my 2nd respec and i love it, i suggest slotting it with end reds and recharge reds so you can perma it

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The hero builder doesn't allow end reduction enhancements, but there is that bewildering accuracy option there. I'll assume that it's broken and go with recharge/end reds.

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Also ninja won't do criticals from shadow fall, or grant invis, because they need the "hidden" status like stalkers do, and that is only granted from their Hide and smoke flash.

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I thought that might be the case, but never hurts to ask. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

Hey all! I've managed to snag a respec on my lvl 27 MM (thanks to all who were on the team for that!), and I need some help with the build. Here's the respec build I have so far:

---------------------------------------------
Name: Hand of the Beast
Level: 41
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Ninjas
Secondary: Dark Miasma
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Call Genin==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) DisDur(5) DisDur(7)
01) --> Twilight Grasp==> Acc(1) Heal(7) Heal(9) Heal(9) Rechg(11) Rechg(11)
02) --> Aimed Shot==> Acc(2)
04) --> Tar Patch==> Rechg(4) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
06) --> Train Ninjas==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(8)
10) --> Darkest Night==> EndRdx(10) EndRdx(15) TH_DeBuf(15) TH_DeBuf(17) TH_DeBuf(17)
12) --> Call Jounin==> Acc(12) Dmg(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Empty(21) Empty(23)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Assault==> EndRdx(16)
18) --> Tactics==> EndRdx(18) TH_Buf(25) TH_Buf(25) TH_Buf(27)
20) --> Shadow Fall==> EndRdx(20) EndRdx(23) DmgRes(37) DmgRes(40)
22) --> Smoke Flash==> Acc(22)
24) --> Fearsome Stare==> Acc(24) Fear(27) Fear(29) TH_DeBuf(29) Rechg(31) Rechg(37)
26) --> Oni==> Acc(26) Dmg(31) Dmg(31) Dmg(33) Hold(33) Immob(33)
28) --> Petrifying Gaze==> Acc(28) Hold(34) Hold(34) Rechg(34)
30) --> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Kuji In Zen==> Rechg(32) Rechg(36) Rechg(36) EndRdx(36) EndRdx(37)
35) --> Hover==> Fly(35)
38) --> Dark Servant==> Acc(38) TH_DeBuf(39) TH_DeBuf(39) TH_DeBuf(39) Heal(40) Hold(40)
---------------------------------------------

The Dark side I'm fine with; it's the Ninja bits that I have questions on. Sorry if I'm repeating any oft-asked questions, but I couldn't find the answers on a trawl through the MM board.

I'm really not sure how best to slot the boys. My best guesses are up there (along with a couple of cluelessly empty spaces), but I'd really appreciate some pointers for this. What's worth slotting for, and what's usually a waste of time?

Smoke Flash is something I hardly use at the moment, and I really need to play with it more. Why does the hero builder give me the option to slot it for accuracy? I assume this is for the placate effect? Also, does Shadow Fall give similar critical hits from stealth? (I don't have it in my current build, so I haven't had a chance to test this!)

Any help/comments gratefully received. Have at!

I also play a grav/rad troller (lvl 32), and I don't have any problems soloing if I want to. While I would rather team up, I find I can go it alone when I have to. Even pre-pet, it wasn't bad.

It might not be the best power combo to solo, but you certainly can. I imagine that fire/kin is probably the fastest one to solo due to the damage output. Depends on your patience and playstyle at the end of the day.

I have an MM that needs to do this, if you'll have her.

There's a good guide to the rad powersets here.

I have a grav/rad and posted my build up here. There are helpful comments about slotting, etc., on there.

The debuff toggles are fantastic. Everyone will love you for Accelerate Metabolism, Fallout is only useful if you have faceplanty teammates, and the others I haven't tried personally. Hope that's helpful!

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Where is the good old 'pull one' tactics?


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This is where I love TP Foe.

I hate feeling like I'm not fighting at full strength and doing everything I can for the team. That said, I don't mind sacrificing one minion for an alpha, as long as the team is quick to follow up with their own attacks so it's not just me and my boys taking the heat.

Ultimately, I'm most effective when I have all my pets up and fighting, and downtime (between death and resummoning/retraining) should be reduced as much as possible. Not to mention that I have better things to do mid-battle than replacing dead pets, like debuffing enemies and making them cower like little girls. So I try to keep my boys alive as much as possible, despite naming them after ways to commit suicide (so they know what they're good for). PC teammates come first, obviously.

I can't think of a situation that would require sending in more than one pet to absorb an alpha. Maybe I just haven't come across it yet. But that's the way I approach the situation.

Wow. Great advice! I've fiddled with the build some more, and I think I've got something reasonable now. Thanks, guys! Got Dawntreader up to lvl 12 today, so she's poddling along nicely.

You guys rule.

Wow, great replies, thanks!

I've rejiggled things about a bit, and ended up with this:

---------------------------------------------
Name: Dawntreader
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Dark Miasma
Secondary: Dark Blast
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Twilight Grasp==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Heal(3) Heal(5) Heal(5) Rechg(7)
01) --> Dark Blast==> Acc(1) Dmg(7)
02) --> Tar Patch==> Rechg(2) Rechg(9) Rechg(9)
04) --> Moonbeam==> Acc(4) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) IntRdx(13)
06) --> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Howling Twilight==> EndRdx(8) DisDur(13)
10) --> Darkest Night==> EndRdx(10) TH_DeBuf(15) TH_DeBuf(15) TH_DeBuf(17) EndRdx(17)
12) --> Fearsome Stare==> Acc(12) Fear(19) Fear(19) Rechg(21) Rechg(21) TH_DeBuf(23)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14) Range(23)
16) --> Tenebrous Tentacles==> Acc(16) Dmg(25) Dmg(25) Dmg(27) Immob(27) Immob(29)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Petrifying Gaze==> Acc(22) Hold(29) Hold(31) Hold(31) Rechg(31) Rechg(43)
24) --> Stamina==> EndMod(24) EndMod(33) EndMod(33)
26) --> Shadow Fall==> EndRdx(26) EndRdx(33) DmgRes(34) DmgRes(34) DmgRes(34)
28) --> Assault==> EndRdx(28)
30) --> Tactics==> EndRdx(30) TH_Buf(36) TH_Buf(36) TH_Buf(36)
32) --> Dark Servant==> Acc(32) TH_DeBuf(37) TH_DeBuf(37) TH_DeBuf(37) Heal(39) Hold(39)
35) --> Night Fall==> Acc(35) Dmg(39) Dmg(43) Range(46)
38) --> Blackstar==> Acc(38) Dmg(40) Dmg(40) Dmg(40) Rechg(42) TH_DeBuf(42)
41) --> Hasten==> Rechg(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(43)
44) --> Dark Consumption==> Acc(44) EndMod(45) EndMod(45) Rechg(45) Rechg(46) Rechg(46)
47) --> Dark Embrace==> EndRdx(47) EndRdx(48) DmgRes(48) DmgRes(48) DmgRes(50)
49) --> Soul Drain==> Acc(49) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

I wound up with a hole at lvl 41, so I figured I'd give Hasten a whirl. Any suggestions for anything different/better?

The character is level 10, so I already have both Tar Patch and Darkest Night. I've just added enh slots in random order, so ignore the levels on them.

According to the hero planner, the Dark Servant gets a 100% accuracy bonus. Is this right? Is it worth slotting it for accuracy on top of that?

Anyway. Hope that's looking better now.

Hand of the Beast's ninja boys:

Genin: Ka, Mi and Kazi
Jounin: Hari and Kari
Oni: Seppuku

Kazi should be Kaze, but it reads better that way. It's funny how well they live up to their names sometimes. Also, I want a 'give minion cookie' emote.