Synaesthetix

Shockwave is useful for the range it has, but I wouldn't expect to be keeping anyone perma-KB'd with it. Worse than that, Shockwave really doesn't do your DPS any favours either, something that is important for PvP Claws Scrappers to try to keep as high as possible - not slotting it for damage will reduce that even further. (FYI, the damage dealt is similar to that of Strike.)

I PvP a lot with my Claws/SR, and I rarely use Shockwave in a "chain" with Focus to create a perma-KB (as most of the better PvP squishies will either have Acro or Hover/Fly) - if anything, I chain it as a sequence of ranged attacks. Other than that, I use it against rucks of enemies who've (foolishly ) bunched up, or not at all.

If all you're after is a perma Knockup/Knockdown effect (and don't want to chase people around), you might want to look into picking up Air Superiority. It's the same damage (albeit ST instead of Cone), less endurance, similar activation times, and Knockdown instead of Knockback. It lacks the range, but it does have -Fly.

edit: I7 changes to Claws include an endurance reduction for Shockwave.

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EDIT: and what made you think you knew that, have you been stalking me again? :S

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Nope, he just can't copy from signatures all that well.

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Rooks - Lvl 50 Stone/Stone Tank.
theTorment - Lvl 40 SS/DA Brute

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Yup, was good fun.

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Are you sick of the sound of Claws yet, Archy?

Not that bad? It looks like a splinter cell of militant Skittles went on a suicide run, using your post as a target.

... that's the last time I sprinkle LSD on my cornflakes.

Asraf!

It was tricky trying to get him to remember how to earn experience instead of debt, but he adapted well in spite of his Ranger training, and managed to hit 50 without ANY debt! (I don't have a clue what we're going to do with him now, though.)

And ironically enough, on the Freaks SG list, Aeronaut is now listed #1 (everybody else being #2 or lower) - the realisation of a dream. \o/

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Lastly one more quote to illustrate my point:

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*laughs*

I know you've been trying to find ways to have a go at me ever since we crossed paths in a Controller thread that I proved you incorrect in, but could you maybe be a little less obvious in stalking me? It'll be more fun for both of us that way.

Firstly, if you're in a PvP zone, you will be attacked. There's a great big popup you get every time you enter the zone to that effect, it can't be hard to remember it. Secondly, if people reply to me in a polite/intelligent/non-aggressive manner, then I extend the same courtesy to them - respect is a two-way street. (I've gone as far to as not only not attack other polite players, but defend them from attack in Warburg, or switch sides in Sirens/BB.) Thirdly, the character in question was more than able to defend themselves/escape if they wanted to (Regen Stalker).

I don't go into the zone to observe matches and find duelling partners - that's what the arena is for - and I expect the same of others. To be assailed with a barrage of profanities and playground insults (that I couldn't post, in order to conform to the forum rules) is not what I expect, and I generally single out people who do so as targets - not for vengeance, or any lofty moral stance, but because I enjoy going idiot hunting for the gems of conversation that usually result from it - my guilty pleasure. I much prefer fighting the better PvPers - if they're not around I have to fight someone, and it might as well be the amusing ones.

As you've said, your view of Zonal PvP is not the one shared by the developers, so it's probably just as well you don't enter the zones. I have my own PvP code, secondary to the rules of Zonal PvP, but I don't expect anyone else to share it, nor do I expect the Zones to be my own personal playground for me and my buddies.

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Who are you then? I don't recall bouncing away from Syn in the zone, which means you have some nom de guerre that I don't know.

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That's because I cunningly hide my secret identity from everyone.

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1) MMs don't really develop until post-30.

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I won´t ever make a MM!!!!

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Whoooops, I meant to say Doms. (That said, I guess the same could be said for certain MMs as well.)

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The mighty Melon has resorted to bouncing around Siren's slapping Tanks? You disgust me!*

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And me! I keep chasing her around and slapping her with my Claws, but will she come to say hi? Nope, she keeps bouncing away and trying to touch up Tanks. Utterly disgraceful.

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There are any number of people who turn up at Galaxy Girl meets who I would have given my eye-teeth to be able to turn into sushi.

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I'm free tonight if you want to have a go.

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PS. Some people undoubtedly don't PvP out of the fear of bad people in PvP areas, having never actually seen any of it. I know what these people are like first hand. I used to have to clean PK raiding parties and other sub-humans out of a Neverwinter Nights server, and I've watched PKers camp safe zone entrances (in another game) to gank anything that dared step out. I've also seen how thoroughly ineffective the moderation of this kind of behaviour generally is on commercial servers, so please don't tell me that PKers get banned fast in CoX.

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Ganking is pretty common in the PvP zones, but it's usually dealt with by the playerbase - the gankers can swiftly become the ganked in the space of a few minutes. It helps that the better PvPers tend not to be of the ganking mindset, and tend to switch sides in the event of an unbalanced zone; those who tend to gank tend to be quite poor; those who are habitual abusers of unfair tactics tend to be ostracised from the community. It'd be extremely difficult to ban anyone for ganking in any event, seeing as the point of the zones is to kill and be killed - unless the killing is being accompanied with threatening/abusive tells.

I do end up /petition-ing more inside PvP zones than outside these days, but the zones are still really only in their infancy. Hopefully, given time, they'll mature enough to the point where casual PvPers will feel comfortable in them.

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I don't have that much pvp experience but I base my thoughts on the amount of dominators and masterminds I have taken down in sirens..Dominators arent that common but a largish amount of MMs and since most MMs I've come across have been essentially 3-shotted I'm not one to promote MM survivability that much in pvp.. Point with MMs is that the pets dont protect them cause everybody can go straight for the MM. This bodyguard buff (link please) may change everything, or not.

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Just because MMs can be three-shotted doesn't mean MMs will be 3-shotted. I play my Rob/Dark MM quite happily in Sirens, in strategic situations - in fact he's the best toon I have for staging beachfront counterattacks when heavily outnumbered.

edit: Oh yeah, link to Bodyguard info.

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PS. I only just took my lvl 24 dominator to sirens call for the first time and I was completely devastated by his damage output Sure hes not properly slotted cause lack of inf but still....

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1) Dominators don't really develop until post-30.

2) Most toons suffer without the proper enhancements.

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Think a few people are going to be surprised at some of the views over there as they seem quite different to the ones over here.

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Some of them are, most of them aren't... which parts were you surprised by?

I always found CFR to be more useful than Sleep Grenade - Sleeps don't work too well with the AoEs in AR. Body Armor helps to take the sting out of most attacks, too.

Just make sure to pick up LRM, okay?

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Ninjitsu - click mezz, self heal, blinding powder. Less defence than SR with some utility powers.

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Ninjitsu lacks knockback resistance though, just realized that today.

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Acrobatics/Fly/TP ftw tbh imo ymmv afaik

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IIRC, Ninjitsu also lacks defense debuff resistance.

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and yesterday, having never seen the excuse before, I twice saw "You can only kill me when I'm running a long animation!"

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*grins*

I was in the zone when you said that (having myself a little pre-arena warm-up) - the only thought that was running through my head was, "Why did you choose a long animation attack when there are 3+ Stalkers bouncing around you, you muppet?" Had the player in question been playing a build that was full of long-animation attacks, I might have had a little sympathy... but he wasn't, he's a known whiner, and so I didn't.

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It's less that I'm saying Thermal is no good for matches, and more that I'm highlighting where there is what I perceive as a pretty serious disbalance in the two sides. If anything, it's more of a problem in zonal PvP.

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Agreed, but it also creates problems for Arena PvP in that hero teams with a decent Empath can carry fewer BFs in favour of red and green insps; villain teams of a similar skill level will be forced by default to carry more BFs at the expense of other insps, lest they be screwed to damnation by a single Mind/Illusion troller (for example).

It was really good to be able to give Kuroshi's PvP build a thorough testing - and I was more than a little pleased with the results. It was nice to be able to use Elude for the hell of it, and not just for survival.

If nothing else, I hope I demonstrated that there's a place in PvP for "gimp" builds.

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Whoops just tested it tonight...Invis DOES block Invince-voke.

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Up until the point you attack and become visible?

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Thaw adds slow protection! Do you have any ideas how awesome that is?

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Do you have any idea how underwhelming the slow protection of Thaw is?

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They even say thaw is probably just as good as SB, maybe better.

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The only benefit Thaw has over SB is that it's stackable.

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Thats what I meant!

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I actually meant that SS still provides stealth against NPCs in PvP zones, just not against other players.

I should make an appearance with my Claws/SR, now he's dinged 50 - I promise I'll go easy on you.

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Bringing any other corr than a therm would be plain stupid, if you are gonna fight heroes. They add almost as much res as a sonic, they can grant mez protection the most common mez effect, they are by far the best healers villains get, they have one of the best single target buffs in the game, they give +acc, they have nasty debuffs, they can give slow protection.

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But their anti-mez lacks fear and confuse res - granted, that's not problem for most arena pentad matches which last long enough for you to just use breakfrees in order to negate the problem (my major gripe with pentads, for the record), but it's a big problem for Bloody Bay and Sirens Call, where villains only chance of a clickie anti-fear/confuse comes from Stimulant.

Bit OT, but I think one of either Thaw or Forge needs buffing until someone can convince me otherwise.

Given a bit of notice, I can bring out my Brute or my MM - but both really need to be 50, and be respecced before they'll be any use in arena PvP. If you just need numbers though, I can provide them.

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So you think +RES buffs are best Syn? I just wonder what it would be like to have /EA brutes running about that have so many def buffs on them they only get hit by the 1 in 30 rule the game has...would be kinda impressive

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Impressive yes, feasible... unlikely, but possible. You'd need a couple of /Cold Corruptors and FF MMs to have any chance of doing it, but a well-slotted Empath and a well-slotted Blaster/Scrapper with FA will still probably scythe through their defence.

(I think there's still very much a place for EA Brutes in PvP, though.)