Thunderspark

Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone. I didn't realise that it was so much stronger. I had taken Maneuvers on other characters via Leadership and found it worryingly weak, so it confused me immensely when it was suddenly deemed the must-have for the new epics.

Two final questions. As you can also take Leadership pools with the new epics on top of your regular AT versions, do they stack and are they equally strong as the AT powers when used by SoA's? Lastly, if the other powers are enhanced above the normal versions, does this also apply to the (already powerful) Vengeance and if so, by how much?

Thanks everyone.

Having read a lot of the posts around, it seems a lot of players hold Maneuvers in high respect for SoA's. I am merely curious as to why.

Any player is capable of taking Maneuvers for their character from the leadership pool, so is there something special about the SoA's version that makes it more powerful or sought after than the leadership pool equivalent? Just trying to discover why its considered essential for SoA's, but not for other archetypes.

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So I really don't get your comment about soloing EB's being so hard or, far beyond, soloing Bane bosses... mainly as the quickest xp to solo your way after SOs lv is go farm Sirens and then WB quick arachnos missions. Bosses spike damage is a laugh with gadgets like Dull Pain, reconstruction, IH, MOG... and the huge regen you get from integration, fast healing and health. No matter how tough a boss hits, you will always have a heal up again before getting into hairy hp levels. A regen needn't worry on a single tough baddie dmg, AV's aside.

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Am I the only one here who fights enemies like the Carnies or Vanguard mobs in RWZ? Firstly, Dark Ring Mistresses have an ability which can reduce your regeneration to a flat zero. Even when using Instant Healing, your regen isn't too great and can't handle the spike damage from their other heavier attacks. Higher level Vanguard mobs have insane DoT attacks which can level your HP regardless of IH or DP, forcing you to spam heals and pick your targets more carefully.

Thats solo. In a group, which they are often found in, they're a force to be reckoned with. There are plenty of enemies in the game that can flatten Regens. Super Reflex characters have at least the benefit of avoiding some of the heavy hits.

I love my Regen scrapper. I can handle most enemies and situations without too much hassle, but there will always be times where it gets too much. There's no such thing as an "easy" class.

Couldn't find an existing post for this, so I thought I'd make one. Trying to find the ultimate speed setup for a Martial Arts / Super Reflexes scrapper. I intend to go for maximum recharge bonuses on IO's (where possible) and maximum running speed. Obvious powers are the speed pool like Hasten and Super Speed, as well as Quickness but I need to balance speed with being effective in combat.

The concept for the character is very much like the Flash, so speed is the central focus and needs to be the priority when looking at abilities.

Has anyone here done a speed build character before? If so, can you post your build for me to peruse?

Global Name: Silent Bloom
Server: Union
City of Heroes / City of Villains
RP Characters:
Little Jenny (Villain)
Thistle'

Global Name: Mary Grace
Server: Union
City of Heroes / City of Villains
RP Characters:
Mary Grace
Silent Bloom
Thunderspark
Jennifer Grout (Hero)

Well, it beats the usual "Stalker's are overpowered" threads...

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hehehe posted this 3 pages bk

[/ QUOTE ]Also posted by myself in a similar thread a few months back. It'd be nice to actually have a room with a view rather than the implied subterranean look.

Its funny how everyone here is posting about how godly Integration supposedly is. You'd think, if that were the case, a Regen scrapper would never get held, disoriented or immobilized which is obviously false.

The only "godly" thing about integration is immunity to knockbacks in my opinion. Thats about the only thing I could honestly say works 100% of the time. Without resilience I can be stunned quite easily with Integration up, even versus those EM stalkers you claim shouldn't even be able to make a dent. I'm beginning to wonder if you're actually basing this on personal experience or throwing figures out there based on what you think shouldn't be possible :/

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Can AS even toggle drop now?

[/ QUOTE ]It doesn't need to. Plenty of stalkers have access to disorient skills which can do all of that for you. Resilience helps a lot to avoid stuns, but doesn't offer much else. Useful if you're getting stunned a lot, but hard to balance with everything else you might want in your build.

Anyway, you guys can scoff all you want. All I know is I was *held* using that very skill. And no, I wasn't stood still, and neither was I trying to make myself an easy target for assassin's strike. Regardless, the emphasis should have really been placed on Fear (A rookie error on my part in the OP) which even you guys admit is difficult to avoid without spamming Break-Free's.

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Yes it does if we are talking about stalker with holds. AS can toggle drop integration and whatnot but it is not possible for a stalker to stack over the protection that integration gives to the best of my knowledge.

[/ QUOTE ]Ever seen Spirit Shark in action? Its a Leviathan Mastery skill, and plenty potent in PvP. Granted its usefulness is limited to Recluse's Victory, but it remains a hold move which can tear through Integration like it wasn't even there. And when slotted well, it can last for well up to 20 seconds. More than ample time to finish you off.

Hate to burst your bubbles on this one but I don't think we're going to see any massive differences with the purple recipes. There are only minor differences between yellows and reds in terms of set bonuses, and the percentages are fixed regardless of rarity, so why would purples break the mould?

That being said, im certainly looking forward to seeing what unique enhancements become available with this new brand of recipe.

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how are you getting held if you're a regen scrapper? If you skipped integration or for some reason don't run it you're dumb and should probably do a respec trial before you go near a pvp zone ever again.

[/ QUOTE ]Integration offers defense against holds, not immunity. And since there is no way to enhance the hold defense given through enhancements you're pretty much stuck with it. It also needs to be noted that all toggles, including Integration, are disabled when you are held, making them very easily stacked once you're already rooted in place.

But yes, fear is one of the bigger nuisances. Any player can pick up Fear from the power pools and spam it religiously due to its low re-use timer. And break-free's really aren't an option here, since you'll burn through most if not all in a single fight with any half-experienced stalker.

I'd love to pick Fear as a pool power, but its difficult to balance out. Flight and SS are essentials for me. Moan all you like about having two travel powers, but in PvP Super Speed is necessary for a quick escape and Flight is crucial if you plan to attack anyone who flies out of melee range. The other two pool powers are taken up with Leadership (for the perception bonus) and, of course, Stamina.

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Warburg??? Isnt that the place true pvpers go

[/ QUOTE ]If you mean the ones who assault the hero base and kill you the instant you step outside, or the ones who like to exploit TP Foe to warp you out of the hospital with zero HP/Stamina and beat you repeatedly, then yeah... I suppose it is. I like Warburg, but as well as the good PvP'ers it also attracts the idiots who are just in it for a quick kill and spam greif tactics. Heck, I couldn't even exit the zone because the times I wasn't being teleported out of the base hospital I was being AS'd and blasted the instant I left it!

*ahem* rant over...

I guess im just gonna have to live with the idea im no PvP master and hang up the cape. Your suggestions are all good, no doubt about it, but its nothing I haven't tried a hundred times before.

There is one thing in PvP which really irks me, and I experience it more than I'd like to. Yeah, im afraid its another one of those stalker-hate posts, so if you dislike em you might as well turn around and hit the back button on your browser.

Stalkers already have an insanely powerful tool at their disposal, making them difficult to track without CM stacked on you and nigh impossible to kill outright when they run half way through a fight, so why then were they also gifted the ability to effectively 2-hit kill any player in the game?

Fights with stalkers tend to go very much like this:

Stalker uses hold move.
Stalker uses Build Up.
Stalker hits with Assassin Strike.
Stalker kills you with [insert main attack here].

Annoying enough that you were unable to see the hit coming, but Assassin's Strike deals such immense damage on its own that any follow up strike of moderate damage and activation will outright kill you unless you're a tanker or under the effect of some potent HP gain abilities.

But the point of this post was not purely to moan about the overpowered nature of stalkers. Thats been done to death already. No, I just want a way to survive it.

Right, survive that attack and dish out the damage on my own terms. First I need a way to resist holds, then I need a way to survive an assassin's two-strike, and finally a means to glue my enemy in place long enough to beat him senseless.

My character is a Level 50 Martial Arts/Regeneration scrapper. Yeah, not exactly stalker-killer material but I want to make the best of a bad PvP build.

So, any tips from experienced PvP'ers? PvP gets dull quickly when you spend the whole time laying face down in your own drool.

Personally I find the endurance draining abilities of Electrity Mastery quite enticing. Of course, im somewhat biased as my character has electrical blast as her main attack power, but despite that there are several abilities which would greatly benefit an empath defender.

Electric Fence: Offers empaths a useful immobilization tool and the DoT on it is quite nice. It also drains a foe of endurance. Some defender secondaries have immobilize skills, but I'm a sapper and love to leave my opponents weak.

Power Sink: This is the main selling point for me. This is truly powerful in a defenders hands and can leave many opponents (PvP or otherwise) easy targets. Drains lots of endurance from Archvillains too, but they regenerate it VERY quickly and have well over 1000 endurance by my guess (heroes have a normal max of 100, boostable with accolades and temp powers). Useful to restore any lost stamina against such opponents though.

Charged Armour: Every epic choice has a self-defense skill, and electric mastery is no exception. Makes you resistant against energy, smashing and lethal damage. Not as good as some other epic defense skills, but no slouch either.

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Your slotting is as good as its going to get without HOs or IOs. Best advice is to slot build up for tohit and maybe take tactics if you're still struggling (against tier 9 powers like elude you'll struggle to hit through consistently even with BU). Most things in PvP need aim or build up to hit through defence anyway MA is no different.

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Okay, time for a little power information...

Most of my attacks are slotted like this:
3x Damage IO (Lv 50), 2x Accuracy IO (Lv 50), 1x Recharge Rate IO (Lv 50)

With two exceptions:

Dragon's Tail: Multi Strike IO set (All Lv 50, All 6 slotted)
Storm Kick: 3x Damage IO (Lv. 50), 2x Accuracy IO (Lv. 50), 1x Touch of Death (Chance for NE Damage)

I also use Tactics slotted with two Lvl 50 To-Hit IO's for roughly 47% bonus (mostly for the perception though, for those pesky stalkers).

Now, here are the serious stumbling blocks when im battling:

Stalkers / Scrappers: Ignore the fact they're invisible for 99% of their playtime, lets focus on attacks. Many stalkers choose defensive abilities designed to DODGE attacks, like Super Reflexes. I don't think I need to go into details, but suffice to say they have plenty of skills to dodge melee attacks. Stalker Regeners would be easy prey if they'd just sit still long enough to die quietly, but scrappers are always tough to beat.

Brutes / Tankers: Enough smashing defense to make even a well slotted MA scrapper cringe. They're basically built to take punishment from the outset, the clue is in the name, but damaging them is only half the battle. The other half is hitting in the first place!

Masterminds: Biggest pain in the neck with these guys is that whole shared damage thing. In order to bring one down I need to level half his minions first (unless he crazily left them in offense).

Other archetypes cause me problems, but those have nothing to do with accuracy or damage. Its usually a case of getting in close enough to actually HIT anything (Slowing moves, immobilize, holds, terrorize).

Sadly, im a regen scrapper meaning I have no real defenses except my own rapid regeneration (which really isn't all that rapid when you're under fire, save for Instant Healing).

I'm discounting Focused Accuracy since I don't PvP in RV, so epics are out. Maybe I'd be more inclined to do so if I wasn't molested by impossibly tough archvillains.

Okay, first question really is whether or not Martial Arts is wasted in PvP. Its the single most heavily resisted of any damage type in the game (smashing) and given most PvP opponents have impressive defensive abilities, you find misses are all too common.

Second question is, if its not wasted then how best is it to slot martial arts attacks to make sure they make their mark? All of my Martial Arts skills are slotted with 90% damage or higher as well as (at absolute minimum) 80% accuracy. Yet it seems a good hit only comes with Focused Accuracy active in RV or a lucky critical (which can't be resisted anyway).

And finally, any tips for getting past those evil enemy defenses? I figure if I can land some decent hits on a Super Reflexes scrapper or stalker, I'll be able to hit just about anything. What are the best moves for this and are there any non-epic abilities which can help me?

Thanks in advance guys.

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My first defender was an emp/rad and I got sick of the constant moaning that I "let" other players die and the expectations that I should apparently only use the emp side. I deleted her at 12 and made a rad/rad instead which is much more fun and there is a little less expectation of.

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I've experienced similar things. One particular player implied I was intentionally letting them die. He would run off into great crowds of enemies and generally bite off more than he could chew thinking he was some godly tank (he was a peacebringer, and while not a terrible tanker replacement, we had one on the team who could withstand a LOT more pummelling). After a while he brought in a 3rd defender who had exemped down from lvl 50 and was obviously so amazing that he got all the praise despite the fact the death toll hadn't changed much.

Anyway that sort of attitude annoys me the most, so I put my defender on hiatus until I can figure out if I really want to continue fighting alongside players who see you as nothing more than their personal slave. Would it kill people to have a little caution sometimes? We're healers, not miracle workers!

14 Teleports total, meaning 14 beacons required and 7 teleporters.

7x Teleporters @ 15k Each: 105,000
14x Beacons @ 10k Each: 140,000

Teleport room can vary. You can either have a large room with lots of teleports, or several smaller ones. I'll assume one big one for now as its more space-friendly.

1x Secure Teleport Room - 1,350,000 (Houses 8 teleports)

Power requirements:
7x Teleporters @ 50 power each: 350

Control requirements:
7x Teleporters @ 25 control each: 175
14x Beacons @ 5 control each: 70

Total prestige required: 1,350,245

That does NOT include the power and control rooms or items required to run them. If you're using the smallest plot, you will find it very difficult to place every teleport unless you have 4x Teleport Rooms (2x2 rooms which allow 2 teleports each). Which works out slightly cheaper at a cost of 600,000 prestige but gives you less space to place beacons inside.

Using that last example, the new total would be: 845,000 prestige.

Hope that helps.

Edit: I should point out that this assumes City of Heroes. Villain world has only 6 beacons to obtain (that im aware of), so you would only need 3 teleport rooms and 6 beacons total, bringing the cost down considerably.

Just make sure to plan out where everything is going to go before you start building, as depending on the layout it can get packed pretty quickly.

The BEST possible layout, maximising the space you can use, would be 3 rooms across, 3 rooms down, all 2x2 in size for a total of 9 rooms. None of the rooms will be particularly sizeable, but if you're careful with arranging the items inside you'll have everything you need for the base.

For power, you need only buy a SINGLE generator. Seriously, those things are beefy and will supply a whopping 1000 units of power to your base -- 8 TIMES the amount you get from the standard combi unit. Control, however, gets a bit troublesome so be prepared to spend quite a bit extra.

My control room looks like a lovely library now (albeit with pretty glowy runes all over the place) just to supply enough control for my teleports. But all of this will benefit the supergroup when we finally obtain enough prestige to upgrade the plot and expand.

*nods agreeingly*

Real beds are definetely high on my wish list too. I mean, where's a girl supposed to get some shut eye if not on a relaxing, cosy bed in the relative safety of her own supergroup base? I don't have a home (gets hard to pay rent when you don't have any cash -- whoever said crime doesn't pay should look at heroism, its diabolical to think we give this kind of service for free!). The SG is my home.

Did you perhaps lose access to the base before the rent changes were implemented to make it free? Sounds very much like it remembered you don't have access, but because the rent is currently free there really isn't anything to be paid up.

Sounds like a bug the devs left in, so post something in bug reports and im sure it will get seen to eventually.

I'd be all for a new PvP area, but preferably something lvl 50 cap which allows heroes vs villains.

Oh, don't even think of mentioning Recluse's Victory. The only people who go there are only after prestige and influence and/or experience points for blowing up the turrets and killing enemies during the breif time limit thereafter.

That and those silly mechs make proper PvP virtually impossible. They hit damned hard and damned fast, meaning the battle is done with largely the bots and not with the players.

So, Recluse's Victory sans mechs and capture points please.

Found the answer to number 1. The move I was attempting would've meant having a workshop blocking the doorway. Seems simple once I think about it.

The second, well... still need info on that one.

Just a few simple questions I hope I can get answers to. I've already checked some of the existing posts, and none of them really answer my questions, so here goes.

1) How do I move an existing room? Everytime I select "Move room" and choose a valid (blue highlighted) location, the move fails. Do I need to remove all items in the room to move it?

2) How can I enhance the healing properties of reclamators? Having to rest *after* I've been defeated is a pain so I'd like to get them up to 100% HP recovery if possible.

3) Are there any unlockable items? I've seen some bases with things like gun cabinets and similar details. How are these obtained, and is there somewhere I can view a list of the unlockables and how they're obtained?

Thanks for your answers in advance.

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Also, lvl53 IO's are close to not obtainable.

[/ QUOTE ]Aside from that, from what I've observed, level 53 IO's have identical bonuses as level 50 IO's. Seems little point in getting the higher ones, when the more common level 50's will work just as well.