Wavicle

Basically, if you look at the way StJ and Staff have been designed for Stalkers, it's easy to see that several of the older sets would have been done differently by the current design team.

So they should redo them.



There's this other popular game where they frequently make drastic changes to the powers system. I don't get why it's such a big deal here.

For Martial Arts they could make it so for Stalkers the first Storm Kick within 2 seconds after a successful hit with Eagle's Claw is a small cone. That way it's strategic.

Heck, they should put splash damage on ALL versions of Energy Transfer.

Maybe about a third of the damage, no crit chance.

At the very least, Placate should not be part of any combo. Either that, or it should be made very fast for all sets so that it is not a dps loss to use it.


Your reasoning about the ST niche Stalkers fill is Fine (Spines? Elec? Kin? StJ? Staff?), but it in no way justifies keeping these two sets gimped by giving them no AOE at all. No other AT in the game has any set with no AOE at all.



That's a good idea, about the End of AS...maybe instead of just a straight up End reduction, tie it Assassin's Focus. Make it so AF gives a stacking End Red buff to AS along with the Crit buff!

The following are my suggestions for spot fixing those Stalker power sets that will still need help after the upcoming changes. These changes would, of course, be ONLY for Stalker versions of the sets.



PRIMARIES

Claws: Add some splash damage to Eviscerate or turn it back into a cone.

Martial Arts: Add some splash damage to Storm Kick, Crane Kick, or Eagle's Claw.

Energy Melee: Add some splash damage to Energy Transfer.

----------------------

Dual Blades: Redo the combo system so that Stalkers get a combo at 6 AND so it does Not involve Build Up OR Placate.


Here's a suggestion I think would work well:

Nimble Slash: Continues Weaken
Power Slice: Continues Empower, Attack Vitals, and Sweep
Ablating Strike: Begins Empower and Finishes Sweep
Assassin's Blades: Begins Attack Vitals and Sweep
Vengeful Slice: Begins Weaken and Finishes Empower
Sweeping Strike: Finishes Attack Vitals
One Thousand Cuts: Finishes Weaken


In addition to Build Up and Placate neither being used in NOR INTERRUPTING combos, and Sweep available at 6 instead of 8: there are two combos that Begin with AS, no combo uses both Nimble Slash and Power Slice, neither Nimble Slash nor Power Slice starts a combo, Attack Vitals finishes with the cone, and Empower does not involve AS.

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SECONDARIES

Regeneration: Add 30% enhanceable Endurance Recovery to Fast Healing. If you must change the name then call it Quick Healing or Fast Recovery.

Super Reflexes: Increase the scaling resistance from Agile and Dodge to match the total of a Scrapper with Agile, Dodge, and Lucky.

Willpower: Add 30% enhanceable Endurance Recovery to Fast Healing.

----------------------




I also believe fixing the bugs associated with Placate is necessary so that it functions the same for all powersets.

With the changes currently on test and some or all of the changes I am advocating here, I think Stalkers would be pretty much fine.

ok, so if I'm debuffed, I'll hit my toggles

I'm running perma Light Form and my Resistance is capped without the toggles on.

Here are my questions:

If I get Resistance debuffed will my Resistance go up if I then turn my toggles on?

Would I get debuffed less if I had my toggles on before getting hit with the debuff even though I was already capped?




Mind you, I'm not going to drop the toggles, they are good mules, and nice to have if exemping below level 33, but I want to know if I should bother running them since Light Form is perma.

Here's my build:


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.953
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Tesseraction: Level 50 Natural Peacebringer
Primary Power Set: Luminous Blast
Secondary Power Set: Luminous Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Leaping

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Gleaming Bolt -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(3), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Build%(7)
Level 1: Incandescence -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(39)
Level 2: Gleaming Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(9), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29)
Level 4: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 6: Radiant Strike -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(17), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21)
Level 8: Proton Scatter -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dam%(23), Posi-Dmg/Rng(25), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25)
Level 10: Essence Boost -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Dct'dW-Heal(27)
Level 12: Inner Light -- AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(A), AdjTgt-Rchg(50)
Level 14: Luminous Detonation -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dam%(33)
Level 16: Shining Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(33)
Level 18: Incandescent Strike -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(34), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 20: Quantum Shield -- ImpArm-ResPsi(A)
Level 22: Reform Essence -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(29), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal(37), Dct'dW-Rchg(48)
Level 24: Quantum Acceleration -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Flight-I(42)
Level 26: Solar Flare -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 28: Thermal Shield -- ImpArm-ResPsi(A)
Level 30: Glowing Touch -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal(48)
Level 32: Photon Seekers -- C'Arms-Acc/Dmg(A), C'Arms-Acc/Rchg(40), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(42), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(43), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 35: Restore Essence -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 38: Light Form -- ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(40), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(45), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45), ImpArm-ResDam(46), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(46)
Level 41: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 47: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Partial Core Revamp
Level 50: Clarion Core Epiphany
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), RgnTis-Regen+(13), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(45), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(48), Numna-Heal(50)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(15), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(15), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(40), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 1: Cosmic Balance
Level 1: Energy Flight -- Flight-I(A)
Level 10: Combat Flight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Flight-I(42)
------------



oops, should have been a Heal in the self rez, not a recharge

There's a real simple difference:

Paris is important.

Providence and Seattle not so much.

No, it's a side issue. I did bring it up myself, but it's not the point I was talking about. Forget it. Some people are just fixated on Arachnos being godlike no matter what other people are trying to discuss. This conversation is not what I am interested in. Happy New Year.

Sorry guys, wasn't able to respond for days because the ******* FORUMS WON'T LET ME LOGIN.


To answer a question:

Limitations of the Arachnos archetypes.

This is pretty obvious and I'm kind of amazed people don't get it.

The Arachnos archetypes are THE MOST limited of ANY AT. You make choices at 24 that totally lock you out of certain options.

I understand opinions differ on this subject, and that's ok, I'm really not here to argue whether blasters are more or less powerful than any other existing AT.

The OP was meant to address a SPECIFIC request that several people have made, that the Arachnos ATs do NOT fulfill. People want an AT that allows you to choose from the various existing Blast sets paired with options of the various existing armor sets. Like Fire Blast/Regen or Energy Blast/Super Reflexes (for example). Obviously the Arachnos ATs are not that.

I personally believe such an AT would be either overpowered or gimped, depending on the numbers.


Regarding Blasters damage and how it compares to, say, scrappers. People often forget that with even just two fast recharging single target ranged attacks you can keep up decent dps numbers while avoiding anything going on in melee. Specifically at endgame, this means that Blasters can keep dpsing during Obliteration Beam, or World of Agony (the pink stuff in MoM, whatever it's called). The scrappers (no matter what they picked for epics) cannot keep up the same dps and survive during those periods.

That's a very limited point, I'm not trying to say that that one point completely evens the playing field.


Also, to the guy that said his Crab has better Single Target Ranged DPS than most blasters: yeah, right. That is pure fantasy.

Here's the thing. It doesn't matter whether or not your think it would be an OP tankmage. The devs have shown via the limitations they put on the Epic ATs THEY believe it would be an OP tankmage. Or they strongly suggest that.

That said:

Once upon a time I posted the build I was using on my Energy Blaster. It wasn't really a minmax build. Well, since then we have gotten Incarnate powers. I have respecced my energy blaster into a heavily minmaxed build.

She had to give up Tactics, Hasten, and some +Range slotting on Power Burst and Energy Torrent. But in exchange she now has softcapped ranged defense, ok defense to everything else, of course keeps Temp Invuln and Force of Nature, retains capped HP, and still has good regen and decent endurance. She has Conserve Power and Force of Nature if end becomes an issue. She also has perma mez protection from Clarion Destiny. Between set bonuses, Musculature Alpha and Assault her attacks do around +140% damage Before Aim/Build Up/Defiance (meaning she does slightly better damage overall than was possible before Enhancement Diminishing Returns were implemented).


I am not trying to say "we already have the range/defense archetype". I recognize that people want this at lvl 1 without huge investments of inf and time (I spent a lot of both on my blaster).

I'm just pointing out that if you are willing to wait and invest you can make a blaster nearly as tough as a scrapper without gimping its damage output.

But my initial point I believe cannot really be argued: that the Devs think range/defense is overpowered without Severe limitations (on damage type among other things) is demonstrated not only by the design of the Epic Archetypes but also by the fact that they have not yet made such an archetype. To make it and have it be Neither A) gimped Nor B) overpowered is a balance nightmare.

I don't think the numbers you are asking for are tankmage material.

I also don't think it would be fun. You would be squishier than a stalker and do defender level damage.

I'm not suggesting you go make a Kheldian or Arachnos, I understand why those don't fit the bill. But you should recognize, the devs DID put ATs that do what you want into the game, but in order to keep them balanced they put quite a lot of limitations on those ATs.

Devs: You need to step up.


This is the moment for you to step forward and show your commitment to treating your female customers with respect.

You must have female versions of things like a gunslinger outfit. This is really unacceptable.

David, we know you know better than this.