StratoNexus

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qr

is the blaster version of blazing aura larger than the melee version like L field?

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No. It also does less damage/tick than the AT mod of 1 would seem to indicate (compare it to the armored AT versions).

Fiery Aura has one other ability you failed to mention. It helps a bit with Fiery Aura's survivability too. Maybe you just figured it was a wash vs. Willpower's +Regen?

Healing Flames is a pretty good power.

I really like my Kat/FA scrapper, although I do not doubt that a Kat/WP would be more survivable and with QR, might even be just as powerful offensively (maybe one day Consume will be given a one minute recharge).

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http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=1#Post13721732

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It should be noted that the day after Niv posted that, the Copy tool was back up and working. However, it seems to have broken again this past weekend.

I prefer apples. Oranges are good, but I just like apples better.

Shields works well for all three ATs that can use it. Do you want more damage or more aggro control?

I kind of always liked the idea of making Barrage a cone, but I think I read that Castle put the big NO on that idea. Giving Total Focus (or ET or Stun) some AoE effect (8 foot radius, hits up to ten targets) could be cool, whether its KD, splash damage, stun, -Damage, -Defense, or something.

Sunday July 19th, 7 PM EST. All Scrapper STF on Test.

1. Sergei DM/SR
2. Saffire Orchid DM/Regen
3. Celeste Cat Kat/Inv
4.
5. Melted Copper Fire/Shield
6. Iggy_Kamakaze (Kat/Fire probably)
7. Sweetness Embodified BS/SD
8. El Outcasto BS/WP
9. Death-Mark Kat/WP
10. bAss_ackwards Broadsword/Shield Defense
11.
12.

Having more than 8 is good, real life often rears its head and causes a few no shows.

If people are interested, I can invite people to our TS server for voice chatty goodness. Lurking is normal if you are mic-less, everyone (especially me) enjoys the sound of my voice, just ask me. I'll tell you.

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Do you guys plan on doing this again sometime? I might like to join you.

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We are trying to see if we get enough interest for a STF this Sunday at 7 PM EST.

See this link for the sign-up

I do not know if we will run more ITFs on Test. I would be willing to join Test runs on occasion.

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Castle could just crank up the Endurance drain.

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I think it would be nice if some Electric attacks were given the ability to bestow the opposite of Conserve Power. Get hit with Lightning Bolt, and now that attack that used to cost 7 endurance costs 12 for a brief time.

/ramble

My Kat/Inv is probably my 2nd favorite toon, it is in my top 5 for sure. Until just very recently, I never bothered to actually slot IOs. Spending the time to slot IOs required either a concept need (my Kat/Regen got slotted with IOs because I needed in-combat movement speed, I didn't really gain a lot of power with IOs, but I did gain back a lot of what I lost when they added travel suppression) or a power need (my Fire/Fire blaster needed more survivability and endurance).

Celeste Cat's concept is fine with SOs (and the few Hami's I have). Her power level was also not really a concern. Solo or teamed, she was tough as nails. Over long fights, I could have some endurance issues, but nothing too problematic. Death was infrequent and I loved tanking with her. I had Aid Self and as a Science origin who was created by the government to take down super villains, a healing/repairing gadget fit right in. Throw in the Presence pool to control the battlefield, and I was a happy kitten (hur, hur). Leaping and Fitness round out the other pools. I tanked the STF, I finished an all scrapper STF, I completed the RWZ challenge, my concept was solid. Why bother with IOs?

I need an impetus to change builds. For example, one day I was in PvP with my flying Fire/Fire blaster and everyone, of course, had SJ/SS. So many damn people would get away from me with just a sliver left, because I could not keep up with Fly. Due to my frustration, I exited RV and immediately respecified into a build I had been considering, but putting off (a choice that has made me extremely happy in the long run). Back to my scrapper; I really liked Celeste's old build, but knew I was not taking advantage of what IOs could bring me. I made many build plans with IOs, but none caught me. An event in I15 was the straw that made me change. Why I could finally change builds: 1) Dual builds, my old build still exists and I can play it whenever I want; 2) I wanted to change back into a build that included the Invuln passives since the recent buffs; 3) My all scrapper Kahn TF attempt ended in failure and my sorry [censored] SO build that couldn't maintain attacking because of lack of end was certainly not helping.

Whipped up a build plan that violated my cardinal rules for Celeste. "I will never take Tough on an Invuln because Invuln should not need it." I took Tough and Weave. "I need Provoke and the fear powers for concept and to help me tank." I dropped the Presence pool. "Katana does not need much +Recharge and I can live without perma-DP." Near perma-Hasten (16 secondsish off) and DP.

Pooling my and my wife's resources, we put together the build in a week (who knew we had so much loot spread across so many characters). I am still missing 8 purples and 1 Numina (Heal), but the build is plenty good to run (the version I have on test is complete, although the PvP +defense IO could be added I guess, it is not in my plans only because it is so far out of my reach). The build is very resilient. Completed the RWZ challenge without needing Unstoppable (I always eventually needed it in my SO build for the +recovery at the least). While DP was up, I could go AFK with DA on auto vs Adamastor, Eochai, and Jack. The 6 scrapper ITF on Invincible was another good test. I am really looking forward to the STF, because of the variety of damage types, end drain, slows and some Psi tossed in for fun.

/ramble

When tons of damage was added to Clobber, shouldn't its Gauntlet radius also have been increased?

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But as is, I don't think I'll ever be interested in EM as either a Brute or Tanker set anymore. It just doesn't capitalise on either AT's strengths, IMO*. It works for both, but I just don't see it as interesting compared to the rest of the available sets, which, other than Dark (which has its excellent bag of tricks, but still really isn't for me when it comes to Tankers), all have superior AoE ability. To be quite honest, even Dark Melee is better in terms of AoE.

*Not entirely true--EM can capitalise on Tankers' increased survivability. But so do the rest of the sets, in that you can be free-wheeling about dropping some AoE down, drawing large amounts of aggro (which Tankers are meant to do), and surviving it. Basically, AoE helps a Tanker do their job, and a Tanker's stats help in being able to feel safe using AoE attacks.

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Coming from a long-time /Ice and /Mace user, one thing about /EM that is often overlooked from a tanker perspective is that /EM is actually not a bad AoE aggro generator. Yes, it is low on AoE damage. However, it had simply beautiful AoE gauntlet. /EM still has good AoE gauntlet, although buffs to /Ice and /Mace have significantly helped those two sets close that gap (and other gaps).

Something about /EM still seems off to me. My only high level experience with it is on a Stalker, and I think Stalkers were the least negatively affected by the changes to /EM. I haven't really had an issue with my /EM Tanker, but he is low level and not played often enough for me to truly judge.

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except it isn't 'something for nothing', it's a lure to get players to try PvP. Think of the drops as a promotional cost.

Rather like 2xp itself, come to think of it.

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That thing you do in RV to get the temp power mech. Make that drop some PvP recipes (maybe not all of them, but some of them).

Perhaps some PvP recipes could be bought with Siren's Call bounty.

Let us shoot for Sunday July 19th at 7 PM EST once again. Start gathering at 6 PM EST just like we did for the ITF. I'd strongly encourage people to have Shivans. If you want to get the buff and debuff Nukes, they might be helpful. I am sure we will try everything without those, but Ghost Widow can be very nasty.

As one who thrives in melee and in combination with your Spherical AoEs, I'd probably drop Static Discharge. That way you do not have to concern yourself with moving to line up the cone.

Another option would be to drop Hover and Fly, switch Swift to Hurdle, pick up Combat Jumping and Lightning Field. Combat Jumping + Hurdle is about as fast as Fly (assuming you have 3 slots in fly, you could switch those so Hurdle and Combat Jumping are each two slotted for an excellent travel speed). Most people do not like to give up their travel of preference, but this is probably the more performance oriented route.

I could be available during the week anytime after 10 PM EST or anytime this weekend, the 18th and 19th.

Gnawing at bit to go after Lord Recluse and his towers! I say we do it even with uber repairmen.

Reposted from the STF thread:

We ran the entire TF on Invincible.
6 scrappers.
We avoided no fights. (Including fighting up lag hill, but we did pull a bit of the generals off before we charged up it).
~90 minutes until completion.
33 Deaths in all.
After the TF was done we cleared the entire last map, searching all the nooks and crannies for wandering Romans.

In mission 3 we charged the platform and fought both AVs at once.

In mission 4 we charged Romulus after clearing the area. We got close, but it was too much healing to overcome without us succumbing to the autohit Nictus + all the other badness. We split the healer off and took down Rommy, and the autohit Nictus was sacrificed to bring him back. Rommy went down a 2nd time, but had run just before his death, so no rez. We took down the healer and then the summoner without difficulty though.

Great fun was had by all.

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Good luck, guys. I expect a full rundown of the events and body count!

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We ran the entire TF on Invincible.
6 scrappers.
We avoided no fights. (Including fighting up lag hill, but we did pull a bit of the generals off before we charged up it).
~90 minutes until completion.
33 Deaths in all.
After the TF was done we cleared the entire last map, searching all the nooks and crannies for wandering Romans.

In mission 3 we charged the platform and fought both AVs at once.

In mission 4 we charged Romulus after clearing the area. We got close, but it was too much healing to overcome without us succumbing to the autohit Nictus + all the other badness. We split the healer off and took down Rommy, and the autohit Nictus was sacrificed to bring him back. Rommy went down a 2nd time, but had run just before his death, so no rez. We took down the healer and then the summoner without difficulty though.

Great fun was had by all.

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Nah, the Character Copy Tool is broken, again.

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The day after Niv posted that message, they fixed the copy tool.

I just tried it a minute ago and it worked fine.

Linky

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Problem with that is blasters tend to have bigger burst damage and lower mitigation.

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On bigger teams, vs large spawns, blasters can (hopefully) end up having quite a bit of mitigation, due to teammates.

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Even if some of the damage ends up wasted, it still gives some additional free damage, and endurance is no concern with Power Sink ; it's also great on big teams, provided you've got enough support/insps.

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Like you said.

Lightning Field is especially useful on an Electric/Electric, since it helps with end drain mitigation and stacks decently with Sparky at making stuff dead you didn't even look at.

/EM has no AoE powers, therefore skipping Fire Breath is not something I would do.

IF you mostly solo on difficulties 1, 3, or 5 and/or PvP, then you could skip it and rarely miss it.

I'll be attempting to log in Sunday afternoon at 5 PM EST to make some Kora fruit runs to get more medium inspires loaded up into the base. I think my test global is @StratoNexus, but it might be @Betty Sizzle1.

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In theory, this is all balanced by there being no "end of mission" reward in terms of XP/Influence/Prestige. In practice...not so much.

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So make AE missions use real doors in the game world and allow mission creators some control over where those doors are placed. The game world is interesting to look at and travel powers exist and are popular for a reason. Don't lock us in the antiseptic green AE building, just because we want to run player generated content.

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what is the current scrapper record?

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4:18

Fire/Shield with monkeys saturating AAO.

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My SG runs that team. Pure awesome. Massive AoE starting at level 4 with Frost Breath and capped off with Ice Storm at level 20. Too much ownage.

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I ran a fire/rad troller ST and we realized running assault was redundant because the damage bonus from AM put us pretty close to the damage cap - *shrug*

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We do not always get to run with 8, so it is nice to have the extra damage from Assault, but your point is understood.