Supernumiphone

Is that working now? The last few times I tried to use that it didn't work. When I clicked the link nothing happened. I know it used to work because I have used it many times, but at some point it stopped. Every time I tried it since, it has done nothing. I admit I haven't tried it recently though because I gave up on it.

It's not that hard to perma. If you don't have accolades or much in the way of +HPs from IOs, I could see you getting some real benefit from the power.

I took a quick pass at trying to modify AS to make it a finisher so that a CU->AS would do the same damage as BU->AS does now.

Current:
AS damage: 139
Critical: 250.2
Total: 389.2
+Build up (80%): 700.5

Modified:
AS combo level 0: 133.4
AS combo level 1: 140
AS combo level 2: 149.4
AS combo level 3: 166.7
Critical: 300.3
Total at combo level 3: 467
+CR (50%): 700.5

Some things worth noting with this setup...using AS after Placate (with no Build Up or CR) does 389.2 damage currently, would do 433.7 at combo level 0, or 467 at combo level 3 under this proposed setup. So AS would be more attractive to use mid-fight if you could get it off. Too good? I'm not sure.

In order to get the damage from CR->AS equal to BU->AS, the base damage has to be set higher to offset the lower +damage from CR as opposed to BU, so this setup would ramp up faster in the presence of damage buffs. Probably too much so. I don't know of any way to fix that though, other than having AS simply do less damage when used with CR than it does currently with BU. So it's a real problem.

If the cost of getting CR was having AS do less damage than other sets (when both are using their respective damage boosting powers, base damage could be equal), would you consider that a worthwhile tradeoff? I suspect a lot of people would not be willing to give up a full damage hit from AS.

Your suggestion is incomplete. If Stalkers got Combat Readiness, which sets your combo level to 3, then the 2 combo points granted by AS would be redundant in a CR->AS chain.

That might not be a problem necessarily, since you could just skip taking AS altogether and follow CR with Crushing Uppercut. I don't know if you'll have an easy time convincing the devs to make AS completely redundant in the set in this way, despite the fact that some would love such a change.

I suppose you could try to argue that it would set SJ apart from other Stalker sets to not be reliant on AS for a big hit from hide. Like I said though, I don't see that going over well.

One alternative would be to make AS a finisher instead of a combo builder, but that would mean CR->AS would (presumably) do more damage than a standard BU->AS from other sets, and I doubt that'd go over either.

Offhand I don't see an easy solution really. I would love to see Placate generate one combo point though.

Why would you willingly do that to yourself?
Good luck with that.

Are you using the /releasepets command? If you dismiss them through other means, such as right-clicking them and choosing "Dismiss" from the context menu, it doesn't work properly when they are bugged in this way. As far as I know only /releasepets does the job then.

Yeah this. It's one of the relatively few arcs where you aren't just charging in like a bull and beating up your enemies. You get to sneakily pit various groups against one another. I like that. It's a shame it's ruined at the end.

Any plan that requires everyone to read the stickies and follow this guideline is doomed from the start. Expect anarchy.

My understanding is that slotted accuracy will help with the initial hit of the power, but will not help the pseudo pet it spawns.

I'd expect the initial hit to roll on the proc, then the pseudo pet to roll on its first tic once it spawns. Since it lasts 10 seconds I don't know if you'd get a second proc roll just as it expires or not.

It should be like any AoE and roll the proc chance independently against each enemy.

Yes.

I have never seen any formula for calculating how much damage DoTs should do. My guess is that one doesn't exist. If I was trying to work that out, I'd probably just calculate the proportion of extra damage the DoTs in existing sets do relative to base damage (sans DoT), and use those as a general guideline as to what's reasonable. I'd look at Spines, Fire Blast, and probably especially the VEATs since they're the most recent.

The same applies to AoE attacks really. The formulae above are the "standard", but if you calculate for AoEs in existing sets in the game, you'll find a ton that break the rules.

You don't lose set bonuses from powers that are unavailable due to examplaring. The only reason you lose the bonuses is if you are exemplared past three levels below the level of the enhancements (barring purples and PvP IOs of course). So for example exemplared to level 40, you would still lose the set bonuses in a power you took at level one if the IOs slotted in that power were level 50 IOs. On the other hand, exemplared to level 20 you would still keep your bonuses from a power you took at level 49 as long as the IOs were level 23 or below.

If you mean alignment merits, wouldn't that cost 30 merits to get those 15 LotGs? In which case you could have just gone ahead and bought the PvP IO directly with those 30 merits.

They'd have to do something new and interesting with it, since they already designed a water blast set once and it's in the game now.