StrykerX
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Posts
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Joined
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Since presumably your faction will determine what version (as in ally or enemy) of the major NPCs you meet, it should be easy to at least have the "proper" name used in missions. If the major Praetorians can be found out in a zone the name would be the same for everyone unless they've added new tech though.
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Quote:It doesn't stack, but it also only has a 20% chance to fire per target. I'd suggest two or three of them if possible to make sure as many things are debuffed as possible (in particular hard targets like AVs).Originally Posted by Silas
One thing to note is that Achilles -res procs do not stack. At all. Not from different attacks, not from different people. If a teammate has the proc in Sleet or Freezing Rain and it goes off on a target, your Achilles procs won't land until the first one wears off. -
ET + EB is pretty reliable as long as you queue up the Explosive Blast while the Torrent is still animating and you aren't lagging. If EB starts to animate before the ET knockback actually occurs it should target everything even if ET scatters them by the time EB actually fires. Any slight delay in activating EB will mess that up though.
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The only problem with Rad Blast is that -defense is pretty much pointless later on. It's great in the teens, but once you have good slotting any Blaster should be hitting 95% of the time against pretty much everything, at which point the only use -defense has is letting you slot Achilles' procs.
That said, Achilles' procs are handy...
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Build Up is an 80% damage buff and Aim is a 50% damage buff. While Build Up is stronger, an extra 50% damage is nothing to sneeze at... plus Aim is such a huge to-hit buff that it pretty much guarantees hitting even high defense targets (or hitting while massively to-hit debuffed). I'd take Build Up if I could only have one, but both are very handy.
Plus if you have both and good recharge you can alternate them and have extra damage every spawn. -
Maybe it'll have Chain Lightning, Chain Induction, Thunder Strike, and Thunderous Blast.
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Quote:Since the only enhanceable secondary effects on HoB are Slow and KB and neither really seems worth enhancing (the slow is only 20%), I'd treat it like any other crashless nuke. That means max damage, max recharge, and enough accuracy to hit whatever you normally fight 95% of the time. Since HoB has 1.4x base accuracy that means one Acc SO will do the job unless you fight really high level enemies, and you can leave it at base accuracy if you only fight +1s and have a 6% to-hit IO (or you always plan to use Build Up first).Originally Posted by Soulscorch
2) What do people find the best slotting to be?
My suggested slotting:
SOs / Generic IOs: 3x Damage / 3x Recharge or 2x Damage / 1x Accuracy / 2x Recharge, depending on what you fight and whether you have any to-hit buffs.
Sets: 5 Obliteration (6 if you want S/L defense) or 5 Armageddon if you can afford it, otherwise frankenslot for ED capped damage and recharge plus enough accuracy to hit your preferred targets. If you can get all the enhancement toy need from 5 slots, add a proc in the 6th.
Probably the best slotting is Armageddon (all but the Dam/End IO) + Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage. That gives ED capped damage, almost capped recharge, good accuracy, and two non-S/L procs (one of them a purple). Unless you're very rich, in which case you can replace the Eradication proc with a Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Resistance Debuff. -
With decent recharge you can use Rain of Arrows or Full Auto on every spawn, which makes them easy to count as part of your standard attack routine. Hail of Bullets... not so much. It's only usable every 2-3 spawns and it tends to get you killed if you aren't careful.
Really, Energy and Dual Pistols are very similar sets. DP's "nuke" is usable more often but Energy's kills a lot more stuff, and both have similar tier 1 - 3 blasts and a cone + targeted AoE. DP gets a stun / hold instead of a high KB shove and a long recharge "line" attack (that I really don't call an AoE since it maxes at 2-3 targets) instead of a snipe. But Energy gets Aim and slightly better damage, so overall I prefer it to DP. Energy Blast is pretty much dead average for damage output, but the KB actually makes it a fairly safe solo set and it's just a lot of fun to play. -
Quote:To be fair, a lot of that is due to Champions' free-form powers system. There is a far wider range of performance (especially solo) in CO than in CoH... some characters are in for a hard fight against three or four +1 Henchmen while others are in no particular danger against a pair of +2 Master Villains. I ended up making some characters that fit in both of those categories... my Powered Armor / Gadgeteer / Sorcery tankmage was almost immortal while my electric blaster faceplanted constantly. Kind of like my CoH Electric blasters do.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
IIRC, ChO calls them "henchman" which still equates to "faceless badguy that shows up in hordes to get mercilessly pummeled with little chance of taking down the main hero." And the fact that I found them (much less the higher ranks) to be far too tough is part of the reason I left that game to come back here (where the enemies are less "too tough").
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How big are the groups you are fighting? Unlike true "rain" powers, HoB only makes one initial set of to-hit checks (rather than one per tick)... that means that while rains can hit more than 16 targets for at least some damage, HoB can only affect 16 targets max. If there are more than that in the group you are going to have some untouched no matter what.
As far as missing everything goes, that sounds like some sort of lag issue or else you are standing a bit too far away when you fire it off... the odds of it happening (assuming you aren't heavily to-hit debuffed) are so low that you should see it maybe once in a lifetime if you are very unlucky. It's far more likely that the targets you thought were in range actually weren't, for whatever reason. If you are superspeeding in and firing it off, too much lag might make the server think you were still outside the enemy group or something. -
I tried DS/Dark in beta and I really liked it... the damage and survivability were very good and both the whip and the /Dark powers could be recolored a surprisingly bright pink. (I wanted my DS MM to be truly evil so I made her a bright pink catgirl.)
I may also try DS/Pain since the demons don't stay grouped up close enough to heal them all with Dark, or DS/Storm because, well... Storm is just a lot of fun. DS/Traps actually seems like a lot of work to keep the pets in the FFG bubble, but DS/Thermal could be good and would be very thematic. I'll probably make four or five and see which I like best. -
And remember that pets cannot have their recharge buffed, so even if it procs nothing will happen.
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Quote:I'm pretty sure you couldn't before the BOTZ nerf without crippling your build. Trying to get that much defense on a Blaster is going to seriously weaken your ability to actually blast things.Originally Posted by Granite Agent
Can you post a build that's close to soft-cap ranged / AOE after the BOTZ nerf?
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Purple sets are great for certain bonuses, like Accuracy, Recovery, and Recharge. On the other hand they tend to lack Defense, Damage, and +HP / +Regen bonuses. Adding purples would give you better recharge but would also reduce your Smashing / Lethal defense and therefore make you more dependent on Flashfire for survival.
Speaking of recharge, you don't have as much as you think you do. Mids' counts the Force Feedback Chance for +Recharge proc when displaying global recharge bonuses if the power it is in is turned on, so be sure to deselect Kick to get accurate readings. You do have very nice defense and regen numbers though, as well as significant +damage. I'd say your current build is better than adding more purples, because you'd lose a fair amount of survivability just to get Flashfire up a few seconds quicker. The only change I'd make is dropping the Stupefy IOs out of Flashfire and replacing them with the Absolute Amazement End/Stun and a 50 Accuracy IO... you'd lose 2.5% recovery but gain 10% recharge with almost no change to the accuracy and recharge of Flashfire. -
Quote:That build was just a quick example of a Ranged capped build I came up with... unfortunately my hard drive recently died and ate all my good builds so I just threw something together. I wouldn't suggest using it without some optimization.Originally Posted by Postagulous
Good job. My only comment would be are you really going to use the powers the way you've slotted them. Granted, you'd lose cap, but the kb being enhanced is really awkward for me, also having an energy^2. I consider the kb more a curse than a blessing most of the time.
And what's the generi-fly IO doing in fly? You're over cap before you add it. You could put the Winter -slow or maybe put the RRedicule +perception in Build Up. There's no room for the +6 acc in weave or hover.
I prefer Ranged defense to S/L simply because I don't like spending half a billion on a build before even adding any uniques. S/L builds pretty much require Kinetic Combat sets and those are insanely expensive, while Thunderstrikes and such are a lot cheaper. You don't have to give up as much to cap S/L, but it costs more than any build I've ever actually finished (I play a lot of alts). -
I don't think I could stand the constant redraw myself (that DP draw animation is long) but if you can then you'll probably get along fine without Executioner's. The main reason to take it is to ensure a good redraw free all-ranged attack chain, but if you are actually using your secondary a lot that won't matter.
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It sounds like he has 18% global accuracy bonus from sets plus around 73% accuracy slotted in his attacks, giving a total accuracy enhancement of 91%.
91% accuracy is pretty good, but a lot depends on what you fight. Your to hit chance is base to-hit * (1 + accuracy) for normal attacks so:
+0 enemy: Base to-hit 75%, final to-hit 75% * 1.91 = capped at 95%
+1 enemy: Base to-hit 65%, final to-hit 65% * 1.91 = capped at 95%
+2 enemy: Base to-hit 56%, final to-hit 56% * 1.91 = capped at 95%
+3 enemy: Base to-hit 48%, final to-hit 48% * 1.91 = 91.7%
+4 enemy: Base to-hit 39%, final to-hit 39% * 1.91 = 74.5%
If you fight +2s or less and they have no defense powers or to-hit debuffs, you are capped on your chance to hit. Against +3s you aren't capped but you are very close. Against +4s you will miss about a quarter of the time, so if you fight +4s a lot I'd suggest adding some to-hit buffs. A Kismet 6% Accuracy IO (which is actually a 6% to-hit bonus) will cap you against +3s and help significantly against +4s, and also adding Tactics would cap you against pretty much everything that doesn't have defense debuffs. Of course that's only if you actually fight +4s... you're already plenty accurate against +2s or less and pretty good against +3s. -
Quote:That's one way to softcap, but not the only way. For instance, this build is softcapped to Ranged even after the Zephyr nerf:Originally Posted by Postagulous
Of course, anyone who tries a blaster def cap has to pick ice mastery, get weave, slot rectified reticule in the build ups, and hit the KC.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Energy Blast
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Flame Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(17), ExStrk-Dam%(19), Acc-I(46)
Level 2: Power Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 6: Power Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 8: Hover -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(34), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def(39), RedFtn-EndRdx(39)
Level 10: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 12: Energy Torrent -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(19), ExStrk-Dam%(21), HO:Nucle(21), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(25), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(25)
Level 14: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 16: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(43), Flight-I(43)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(31), EndMod-I(31)
Level 22: Power Push -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(23), ExStrk-Dam%(23), Acc-I(46)
Level 24: Stun -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(33), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(33), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(33), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(34), Stpfy-KB%(34)
Level 26: Explosive Blast -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(27), ExStrk-Dam%(27), HO:Nucle(29), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(29), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(31)
Level 28: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 30: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(40), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RctvArm-ResDam(40), S'fstPrt-ResKB(43)
Level 32: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def(37), RedFtn-EndRdx(37)
Level 35: Nova -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Boost Range -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 41: Char -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(42), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(42), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42)
Level 44: Fire Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(45), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 47: Total Focus -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(48), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50), Mako-Dam%(50)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- Dmg-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 4: Ninja Run
With Hover and Boost Range you can attack from long range while avoiding return fire. It's weak to AoE attacks, but then the S/L softcapped build is weak to fire and electrical attacks. With Blasters you have to pick a set of things to defend against... you can't dodge everything. (That's a Scrapper's job...)
Also, Kinetic Combat is pretty much the most expensive non-purple attack set in the game so a Ranged defense build might be cheaper. On the other hand, you lose the hard hitting melee. -
I'd suggest taking Explosive Arrow if you solo much. You can follow up Rain of Arrows with it and everything generally hits at the same time due to the delay after firing RoA, and the extra damage often kills minions that RoA left standing (especially if you fight +2s or so that tend to survive RoA with a sliver of health). The big advantage Explosive has over Fistful is that it hits more targets from longer range, so you can take everything but the Lts down before they know what hit them. Slot Explosive with 5 Positrons and you'll have some nice recharge, recovery and accuracy plus good damage.
Remember, you need about 50% global recharge to get Snap -> Aimed -> Snap -> Blazing seamless with Thunderstrikes since that set only offers 60-70% recharge. You can always just add in Fistful or live with a gap, but for tough enemies it's better if you can get the recharge. It also really helps with using RoA more often. Softcapping is nice, but if you can get Rain of Arrows up every spawn then eliminating all the minions before they can fire is even better defense.
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With two /Rads nothing should be able to hit you anyway unless you are fighting +4s or something. That's assuming the Rads are actually played... if you are triple boxing and running all three characters yourself some defense isn't a bad idea since it will probably take longer to get things debuffed.
I'd say take Maneuvers and call it a day since you'll already be taking the Leadership pool. Endurance won't be any problem with that team, and having an extra 12% defense or so (assuming all three use Maneuvers) added to whatever minor defense each character has from Combat Jumping or Hover or whatever will stack nicely with your Rad debuffs if you do fight +3s or +4s. It will also help a little when things are too spread out to debuff everyone. It won't matter against anything near your level because everything will die too fast to notice.
And yes, two Fire/Rads and a Plant/Kin should eat most AVs alive. That's a lot of damage and enough debuffs to basically turn an AV into a punching bag. -
I find /Energy is great for a character who wants to stay mainly at range but still be able to make things regret getting in close, and also great for characters who want long range. /Devices does have better tools to keep anything from ever reaching you for a pure ranged character, but it lacks Build Up. A pure ranged character generally has little use for mines, so you'd sacrifice significant damage by choosing /Devices over /Energy. I find that with Boost Range and a set with decent AoEs I can just wipe out the enemies before they reach me unless I am fighting a flying boss or EB... and in those cases I just pop a couple purples. Flying EBs aren't that common and you can always set your missions to "no bosses" so I find the problem is rare enough that inspirations can handle it.
Now if you are planning to fight lots of bosses, /Devices may indeed be the better choice because stacked Trip Mines soften them up very nicely. But then again, so does Aim + Build Up + your heaviest blasts from 100+ feet away. -
Quote:That might have been a guideline when making the original sets, but I would think the main question on porting sets would be: is this brokenly strong or weak?
As I said, there isn't a set in the game that offers over 30% def to everything on just SOs.* There are sets that can situationally get more (Invuln - 32% with saturated Invin, Ice - 34.52%/38.44% with saturated EA (unslotted/slotted)), but not guaranteed, always on, and practically undebuffable with just SOs. I don't think that is a coincidence. Just like reordering sets or breaking the Cottage Rule are taboo, I suspect that over 30%-35% in set def is as well
My question is, would it be possible to tank properly on a pure defense based set without near-softcapped defense? The scaling resists would help (especially with tank HP) but overall I doubt a SR tank would be able to handle more than an Invul or WP tank can... they'd have specific situations where they were better or worse, but overall they'd have softcapped defense and moderate resists when hurt that don't really count against high-damage opponents (anything that can 2-3 shot tank HP). When compared to WP's layered defenses or Invul's massive S/L resists plus decent defense, that doesn't seem unbalanced. (Especially since SR has no heal, +regen, or +HP power.)
My personal belief is that SR hasn't been ported because dodging attacks just doesn't seem to fit with the whole Tank archtype... Shield and Ice deflect attacks with something, but SR just avoids them. That's more Scrapper-like... just like massive ponderous attacks like SS and Stone Melee are too Tank / Brute oriented for the devs to give them to Scrappers. -
Quote:Very true, but then SR had better have the edge. SR gives:Originally Posted by Sarrate
The real kick in the pants for the Shield build is eating 3 pools. If they want Stamina (pretty much assumed), then they have their 4 pools locked. I'd say, for SOs, SR would have the edge. (It's no comparison with IOs, Shield is definitely better - but again, SR peaks high early.)
- Defense
- Massive defense debuff resistance
- Scaling resists when low on health
- Quickness
- A tier 9 power that is essentially useless if softcapped
- Around 2/3 as much defense and defense debuff resist
- Full-time resists roughly equal to what SR gets at 40% health
- Significant +damage and a minor damage debuff
- A team +defense aura
- An extremely good AoE attack
- A good tier 9 power that stacks very well with softcapped defense
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A Shield Tank with 3 defense SOs in all his shields and 3 defense SOs in Hover, Combat Jumping, and Weave has 44% defense to all positions. He also (assuming Tough and his resist powers are slotted up) has over 46% S/L resist and 23% resist to all else but Psi. Plus they get a -damage aura that boosts their own damage. A SR Tank would be able to get the same defense without Hover or Weave but would have much lower resists and no aura. When you consider how easy Tanker Shield Defense is to softcap with Weave and a handful of IOs I really don't see a problem with SR being cappable on SOs alone since it has almost nothing but defense.
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SO / Generic IO Slotting
1 Acc / 3 Dam / 1 End / 1 Recharge for standard attacks
1 Acc / 3 Dam / 2 Recharge for long recharge attacks
Frankenslotting
Mix and match the cheapest set IOs you can find to get:
40-60% Accuracy
90% or more Damage
40-60% or more Endurance
enough Recharge to suit you (Flares needs none, Thunder Strike needs lots)
Sets
6 Thunderstrike is fantastic for ranged attacks since it provides accuracy and ranged defense
5 Decimation + 1 random Dam/End/Rech for ranged attacks if you don't care about defense
5 Positron's (plus an optional Recharge) for targeted AoEs
6 Mako's Bite for melee if you want ranged defense
4 Kinetic Combat + 1 Acc/Dam for melee if you want Smash / Lethal defense
5 Crushing Impact for melee if you don't care about defense
There are other sets that are useful for specialized builds (like max HP / Regen or max Recovery) but those are the big ones.