Werner

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Everfree_Fire View Post
    If I recall correctly, I had originally had a number of them, but when I looked at the numbers it didn't seem to do much, so I hijacked the slots.
    Integration has a higher regen rate than Fast Healing which has a higher regen rate than Health. So if you're going to be stingy on slots, you shank Health first, then Fast Healing. Integration is last, which means you probably shouldn't be shanking it.

    It's really no problem shanking Health on a Regen, so you could probably just move the slots around rather than worry about reslotting. But I haven't actually looked at the build because I'm having Mids' trouble.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bosstone View Post
    Can I ask why?
    Why I want a lot more? Well, without Focused Accuracy (I only have that on my Katana/Regen), debuffs hurt a lot. And then you get things like bubbled level 54 Rikti Drones, for instance. If you're using a Katana, you have to hit for your defense, which matters on my Katana/Dark and has been a problem on occasion. So lots of reasons, but none of them really strong enough to make me say, "yeah, that's more important than 100 more hit points" or whatever the trade off might be. So I typically end up not much more than 95% to hit +4s.
  3. Werner

    An Inquiry

    For what I'd consider my mains...

    Katana/Regen: Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut -> Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut -> Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut -> Soaring Dragon -> Gambler's Cut
    Reason: Best DPS chain to double-stack Divine Avalanche, which the build requires to soft cap defense. Achilles' Heel in Gambler's Cut keeps DPS reasonable.

    Katana/Dark: Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut -> Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut -> Soaring Dragon -> Gambler's Cut
    Reason: Second best DPS chain to single-stack Divine Avalanche, which the build requires to soft cap defense. Lower recharge and more margin of error than top single-DA DPS chain, which is only marginally better anyway. Achille's Heel in Gambler's Cut keeps DPS reasonable. I switch to the same chain as my Katana/Regen when defense debuffed.

    Dark Melee/Super Reflexes: Smite -> Midnight Grasp -> Smite -> Siphon Life
    Reason: Best DPS chain. Good spamming of Siphon Life to heal. The immobilize is occasionally useful.

    Fire/Shield: Fire Sword -> Greater Fire Sword -> Fire Sword -> Fire Sword Circle
    Reason: All-sword attacks concept build. It looks neat in action. Very good AoE even if the single target DPS sucks, so still plows through missions just fine. Faster than any of my other mains, actually.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bonnes View Post
    What goes into figuring how much Accuracy I need for a given mob?
    To check your accuracy against +4s, go into Mids', then Options -> Configuration -> Exemping & Base Values -> Base ToHit -> 39. If you have a Gaussian set in something like Tactics, you'll need to remove the chance of build up, or it will be factored in and thus greatly inflate your chance to hit. I shoot for 95% or higher against +4s. I'd like a LOT higher, but other build considerations usually take precedence.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kractis_Sky View Post
    Once the tank taunts, all bets are off. Tank gets the argo. This is how I see it. Taunt >> Active > Passive.
    My Fire/Shield with unslotted taunt aura routinely duos with an Invuln/Super Strength Tanker with well-slotted Taunt and taunt aura.

    If the Tanker gets to the spawn first, Foot Stomps and Taunts, I feel like I'm probably only able to get the aggro of what he hasn't taunted, and only sometimes. If I get there first and start wailing on something, even Taunt won't get them off of me until they're dead. AVs excepted because they survive long enough to get multi-taunted, which seems to eventually overwhelm my damage. But if he gets casual with Taunt in an AV fight, I can get the aggro back. He has to use it routinely to keep aggro.

    And OK, yes, maybe that's a little strong. I can understand peeling a little aggro with my combination of unslotted taunt aura and huge damage. It might be a little much to be able to hold that aggro through a well-slotted Tanker Taunt and taunt aura.

    Hasn't caused us any problems because my build can handle the aggro bleed, even when we're playing +4x8. But I can see how it could be a problem for some people.

    Thinking further on it, maybe it's specifically when we play +4x8 (we don't always) that we see this happen. High level enemies are probably heavily resisting the taunts from both of us and responding to my massive damage output in ways that lower level enemies would not. Maybe I should experiment more. I haven't been observing carefully because it hasn't been a problem.
  6. Going to be some repeats here of what others have said, but:

    Scrappers only get taunt aruas on sets that require stuff to be glued to you for their set-defining powers to work best - Against All Odds, Invincibility, Rise to the Challenge. If you aren't surrounded, those powers aren't working "properly". If you want to take best advantage of your secondary, you want stuff glued to you, and you're just going to have to figure out how to survive the aggro.

    I HATE runners. Taunt auras help keep stuff glued to me so that I can kill it more efficiently. I don't have any problem surviving, so efficient killing is what I'm interested in.

    I've played dedicated small team tank with Scrappers. Can't do that very well without a taunt aura, and I didn't want to "upgrade" to a Tanker, because I wanted damage output, and I was angling for the end game. A Brute might be an alternative these days, but I prefer all my damage right now instead of building up to it.

    Some secondaries have a taunt aura. Those of us who like taunt auras will consider it a plus of those secondaries and be more likely to play them. Some secondaries do not have a taunt aura. Those of you who don't like taunt auras will consider that a plus and be more likely to play them. I'd be thrilled if every Scrapper secondary got a taunt aura just like you'd be thrilled if they removed Scrapper taunt auras. But we have to leave something for the people who aren't like us. That way everyone gets to have fun.

    And yes, I've seen taunt auras kill Scrapper teammates. I'm sure they kill lots of people before they get the hang of building for the survivability to handle the aggro. But I believe it's considered a positive by most of the forum regulars. It's not there to kill you, even if that is one possibility. It's there to help you and the team do your jobs. And I can't remember it ever being to blame for one of my own deaths except in the global sense of "I'm tanking, so I'm the one that goes down first if we go down." But in that case, I blame the death on my chosen role, not the power that lets me choose to take that role.
  7. I haven't looked at the builds (and barely the thread), but Incinerate -> Cremate -> Fire Sword is an excellent chain slotting in between the top chain and the Incinerate -> Scorch -> Cremate -> Scorch chain. If you have the recharge and can afford the endurance, I'd go for that.
  8. Hmmm... looks like I only have 29% ranged defense and 17% AoE defense on mine unless I failed to turn on a power. Haven't played him in ages so I might be confused. That's also an I12 build. There have been SO many ways to improve your character since then.

    What I'd probably be aiming for these days is 33% ranged and 33% AoE. I'd want to soft cap melee with a single Divine Avalanche, but I'd settle for less. That puts you one small purple from the soft cap. Shadow Meld will of course also soft cap you, as will Moment of Glory. But what you're really after is recharge - massive recharge, perma Hasten kind of recharge. That's fairly straightfrward these days if you have the influence, and take the Spiritual alpha, of course. Doing it while ALSO getting the defense and everything else a build needs is the challenge.

    I don't, however, have an example build. I suspect something like that is achievable these days with enough effort and influence, but I haven't tried to put it together.

    I wouldn't be going for smashing/lethal soft cap, though. Go positional defense with a Katana/Regen.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by VoltageAvenger View Post
    This is my favorite part and with permission, I will put it in my bio, with proper attribution of course.
    Sure.
  10. I've resisted Dark Melee/Invuln for so long. I know it has the best survivability in Scrapperdom, but I've always wanted to see just how much I could do with other combinations. But sheesh, it's just TOO good the way you have it slotted up. I may need to finally break down and start one.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Santorican View Post
    Here is another iteration of my ATF build. With the very rare I will be at the new soft cap

    http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...87FD0FBCF2CF0A
    Yay! New Mids'!

    Oh, and good job getting the build to 59%+ defense. Yeah, that too.

    Looks like you tuned for 95% against +4s without Tactics, which I guess is one of the "side" benefits of Nerve, and then you have Tactics available when necessary.

    You could put a stealth IO in one of your prestige sprints, which would I think get you full invisibility. I have that on my Katana/Dark, and it's occasionally useful.

    Siphon Life makes me a sad panda. Hmmm, if you can find a slot, a full set of Eradication in Shadow Maul is half the battle. Could drop the heal from Health. You lose a little regeneration, but if you can properly slot Siphon Life, that's much better than some regeneration. That's not enough, though. Still need to find another bonus somewhere. The Cloud Senses proc looks like an easy sacrifice to get a slot. Could slot a full set of Red Fortune in Battle Agility. You lose some DPS, some hit points and 3% resistance, which are all things you don't want to lose. However, now you can do the "standard" slotting in Siphon Life and nearly double your healing rate. I think the benefits of keeping your hit points topped off may outway the benefits of the hit points and resistance even when we're talking about spike damage (you won't want to burn a green every time you get hit, after all).

    We can get a little of the DPS back by putting the Hecatomb damage instead of damage/recharge in Shadow Punch, which I can't imagine needs to recharge that fast. Then stick the damage/recharge in Siphon Life instead of one of the standard Nucleolus, because lord knows you'll almost never need all that accuracy with the Nerve boost. That'll get back at least some of the spammability of Siphon Life that we lost when we dropped the Mako's set. We could do it again with a Crushing Impact damage/recharge. We lose a little bit of damage and of course accuracy, but add more spammability, so it seems like a good trade.

    Hmmm, losing the accuracy from Scirocco's Dervish now requires Tactics against +4s. Well, hopefully the endurance reduction on Siphon Life and Battle Agility will cancel out the endurance increase on Shadow Maul and running Tactics. Probably won't, but it shouldn't be too bad. Not sure if you were sustainable and just barely, though.

    Well, there are some downsides, but it's at least arguable that having Siphon Life slotted for healing is worth the sacrifices, and at least the soft cap wasn't one of the sacrifices. Something to consider, anyway, and hopefully there's a better way to accomplish what I was after here without so many sacrifices. Those were just the first opportunities I spotted.

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  12. Here's my standard Regen boilerplate, quickly modified for I19:
    “There are definitely other approaches, but here's what I'd consider a basic plan for the Regeneration secondary using SOs or common IOs:
    • Fast Healing at 1, 3 heals
    • Reconstruction nice and early, 3 heals, 3 recharges
    • Dull Pain when or shortly after when available, as there is a lot to squeeze in at that level, 3 heals, 3 recharges
    • Integration at 16, 3 heals, possibly 1 endurance reducer
    • Resilience when and if you can work it in, 1 resist
    • Instant Healing when or shortly after when available, 1-3 recharges, no heals unless you're swimming in slots
    • Skip Revive
    • Moment of Glory when or shortly after when available, 3 recharges
    • Hasten when convenient, 3 recharges
    • Tough when convenient, 3 resists, 1 endurance reducer
    • Slot Health when convenient, 3 heals
    • Quick Recovery when the default slot in Stamina isn't enough. 1 endurance modifier at first, add 1 or 2 more as necessary
    • Slot Stamina only after slotting Quick Recovery. 1 endurance modifier at first, add 1 or 2 more as necessary
    If it were me, I'd also try to get some basic defense, but it will use up even more power and pool choices. Combat Jumping or Hover, but don't worry about slotting for defense. Weave with 3 defense. Maneuvers with 3 defense. The Steadfast Protection unique in Resilience or Tough. With even-level SOs, that will give you 14.3% defense to all. Not great, but not bad."
    As for how to play one, that's mostly a matter of experience, knowing which of your clicks to use when. Here are my takes on it.

    Using Dull Pain reactively is mathematically superior to using it proactively as long as you have the reaction time to hit it before you're dead or close to dead. Hit it when you're below half, but before you're blinking red if you can. Learn where hitting it will JUST fill you to full, and hit it there. Don't use Dull Pain if you think Reconstruction can get you through the fight. But if you don't think Reconstruction can get you through the fight, Dull Pain will bost Reconstruction along with everything else, so it's better to go ahead and hit Dull Pain.

    Instant Healing is used proactively. Click it as you're diving into a tough fight. If you're already dying, Instant Healing won't likely save you. But if you click on another power that will save you, and think you'll still be going down quickly, Instant Healing may be a good second power to hit right after the first.

    This one may be controversial, but use Moment of Glory reactively. Yes, yes, it's a great alpha strike absorber, so people want to hit it before diving into a tough spawn. But if you can resist the urge, and hit it fast enough as you start taking damage, you'll likely heal back to full during its duration, and you'll get a few more seconds of invulnerability than you would have otherwise had.

    As you might tell, one of the main skills of Regeneration is learning to anticipate exactly how much damage you're going to be taking and how fast during a fight. That comes with experience and careful monitoring of your hit point bar. This isn't a Secondary where you ignore your hit point bar.

    But you also need to learn to not overreact to the movements of your hit point bar. Your hit points on a Regen are very pliable, and that green line will be moving back and forth, back and forth. It's not you dying. It's just you breathing. Breath in. Breath out.

    You're going to die a lot as your learn your secondary. Regeneration is a school of hard knocks. But it can be VERY rewarding when you get it right. And even the deaths can be glorious.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingLeo07 View Post
    The Challenge with this build is obviously the massive end drain. I have been trying to solve this problem and still have all the toggles that make this build so much fun. Please tell me what you think.
    Doesn't look like much of an endurance problem to me. Your net recovery before you attack and heal is 3.19 endurance per second, which is more than I target before I start doing actual endurance calculations (a "typical" IO'd chain takes in the neighborhood of 3-3.5 endurance per second). Worse if you turn on Focused Accuracy, but probably still fine for normal play.

    However, there are some quick and easy fixes. First, take one of the slots out of Physical Perfection, stick it in Stamina, and put a Performance Shifter proc in it. Second, find a slot from somewhere to put a Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regeneration. That's HUGE, at least if you heal very often. And finally, if all else fails, you can take the Cardiac alpha. Thing is, the Cardiac is probably such overkill that you'd want to rearrange the whole build for LESS recovery. And I don't think you'll need it the way you've set yourself up.
  14. At your level of recharge you can run the top chain, Incinerate -> Greater Fire Sword -> Cremate. You should probably have Hecatomb in Greater Fire Sword for that, but it'll probably only matter when your recharge is debuffed if you're taking the Spiritual alpha. However, that requires one more power pick. You can do almost as much DPS at lower recharge and save a pick by running Incinerate -> Cremate -> Fire Sword. Incinerate keeps the Hecatomb in that case, and your attack chain is more resistant to recharge debuffs. That's what I'd do unless you're shooting for a top Pylon soloing time.

    You can't really see total DDR for Shield Defense for a couple reasons. First, Mids' doesn't let you stack Active Defense the way you can in the game. Second, Mids' applies ED to the defense enhancement in the debuff, except that the game currently does not... or didn't last time I checked. There have been a couple patches since I checked. I assume that's a bug, though, and will get patched, so Mids' is probably reporting the number you can count on. So just look at the powers individually and add them up, including Active Defense twice because of your recharge. You can see the DDR numbers for each power as the "Res(Def)" number in the Effects tab. Looks like for Grant Cover it's "Res(Multi)".

    Data chunk of your build for Sweetcake and others that need it:

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  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Spiritchaser View Post
    Unless the scrapper invul taunt aura is THAT superior to dark/electric/fire damage auras...
    It is if you want to Tank. You will not hold any aggro with a Scrapper damage aura since they have no taunt component and anyone can outdamage an aura.
  16. What chain were you planning? You're about 1/10th of a second off of Incinerate -> Creamate -> Fire Sword, which is an excellent chain. Looks like that'll eat about 2.58 EPS. Toggles are 1.2 EPS. Hasten is in there crashing, Active Defense... I'm lazy so let's call it about 4 EPS, though it's probably a little under. You're recovering 3.58 EPS if you include the Performance Shifter. That's really no problem for normal play. It's only a problem for no inspiration AV pounding.

    Greater Fire Sword is a great attack. However, what I consider the best chains for moderate recharge don't use it. At your recharge, it's the one I mentioned. At lower recharge, it's Incinerate -> Scorch -> Cremate -> Scorch. I'd probably only suggest Greater Fire Sword for the top DPS chain (Incinerate -> Greater Fire Sword -> Cremate), which you don't have the recharge for.

    I haven't looked at the rest of the build much, but it seems to cover the basics. Defense Debuff Resistance is a little light. Accuracy is a little off against +4s. No heal and little regeneration, so you'll be using greens. Seems fine though.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison View Post
    That's because you don't have a Dark Armor tank.
    Why would I do that? Everyone knows Dark Armor sucks!

    Actually, I should try it on a Tanker some time. I loves me some Dark. Leveling a Shield/Dark Tanker at the moment, though. I wanted a DPS Tank, was jealous of everyone's Dark/Shield Scrappers, and figured that might satisfy both urges at once.

    And of course the only reason I don't have Tankers tougher than my Katana/Dark is that I haven't tried. It's pretty easy to build a Tanker tougher than the toughest Scrapper.
  18. This build has some VERY impressive recharge. Let's see, you have +118.16% on Elude itself, +211.3% global, the very rare Spiritual will give you 30% + (15%*15%) = +32.25%. So you have 100% + 118.16% + 211.3% + 32.25% = 461.71% recharge and are closing in on the recharge cap. Elude will recharge in 1000/461.71% = 216.59 seconds, giving you only 36.59 seconds of down time. You are, of course, still nowhere near permanent, but that's over 83% uptime.

    Now, you don't often need that much defense, and even if you did, you could probably get it from other powers and IOs if you tried, and with Tough, more hit points, and no crash. But it's still interesting just how much recharge you can get these days.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by theheat View Post
    I might see what I can do with a ma/sd build now...wo'nt really need fireball (like on my ma/sr ) for added aoe to Ma/ because you have SC.
    You don't need Fire Ball, but having three AoEs is nice.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by theheat View Post
    And the cardiac alpha to boost end/resist would be awesome as well. Can probably get s/l resist to the same lvl that sr would get it when low on health all the time too. ...
    SR can get some really impressive resistance when low on health. During testing, I was able to hover indefinitely in the red with I think 40-50% negative resistance (what I was being attacked with). I have Tough, so smashing/lethal would have been over 50%. You're certainly not getting there on a Shield Defense.

    On the other hand, it was a pretty artificial situation. In the real game on a serious build, it's spikes of damage that take you out on a Super Reflexes, and the scaling resistance doesn't play nearly as much of a role. I think I figured 20% in my survivability calculations. I'd call it competitive with Shield Defense, no more, no less.

    Anyway, the Cardiac doesn't provide a whole lot of resistance to Shields. Completely guessing based on my experience with Dark Armor, but let's say 2-3%? You'd probably get more slotting a Shield Wall unique. Still, those are two billion, so you just saved yourself two billion. And if you're rolling in influence, there's nothing to say you can't have both.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by theheat View Post
    Granted I do'nt think u can get softcapped and have perma hasten on a /sd, still makes me wonder....
    You can. My Fire/Shield is soft capped, has 95% DDR, and is about 4 seconds off perma Hasten. That's with the Cardiac alpha. I'm sure I'd be perma with the Spiritual.
  21. Werner

    Alpha Slot Info

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
    Still only 54. As far as I know, there is no such thing (yet) as a critter over level 54. They can give critters level shifts, though. I'm betting we'll eventually see whole missions worth of baddies in Incarnate focused content that are level shifted. That leads to the potential for level 50s to fight foes that "feel like" +5s or whatever, even if their actual level is something lower.

    They still won't give any better reward, though. Not unless they explicitly tweak their base reward value.
    Eh, as long as they make them harder to match our increasing power. But I kinda can't imagine a room full of devs going, "Wait, what? The level shift made characters more powerful? They're just face rolling content now? Wow! Who could have seen that coming?" I think we'll be fine.
  22. Werner

    Alpha Slot Info

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Santorican View Post
    I usually fight at +4 and it was tough but now, maybe I'm exaggerating and crazy, but it feels so much easier now. I was fighting +4 x8 Malta last night and I couldn't believe the difference in performance against them.
    If you're on a 50 (+1), and are set for +4x8, I'm guessing you still only get level 54 enemies instead of level 55? (Please please please level 55!)
  23. IO levels matter, but the performance difference between a 35 and a 50 isn't huge. I always use 50s because I don't care about price, I don't care about exemplaring, and I do care about every last tenth of a percent in every power. But lower levels are cheaper and allow you to exemplar well, something many people value, such as for running the lower level task forces.

    I'd love to have Hasten in a build like this. I haven't seen a way to fit it in without losing things that I consider more important.

    I consider a properly-built Katana/Dark one of the toughest Scrapper combinations in the game. Not THE toughest, which I'll give to Dark/Invuln (depending on enemy, of course), but very, very high on the list. I carved through eleven Praetorian Archvillains in a row on mine in I17 with no temporary powers, no inspirations, and no deaths. I did a double Rikti War Zone Challenge, again in I17. I also survived four giant monsters in I19 with the uncommon alpha for about ten minutes, then upped the ante to six and survived another three minutes or so before they finally put me down. I plan to get a video of that at some point. Good Tankers and good Dark/Invulns can do even better, but it's very, very solid. Well... outside of heavy defense debuffs, anyway. But everyone has their Achilles' heel.
  24. Definitely room for improvement there. I THINK a build by Ramia Angriffe and modified slightly by Iggy Kamakaze may be just what the doctor ordered, and I'm guessing can be done on your budget The biggest thing is probably the survivability increase by getting to the soft cap. However, the attack choices, slotting, and resulting chain should give you a significant bump in damage output as well. There are better builds out there at higher price points, but I think this one is pretty impressive for a "cheap" build. The Dark Regeneration isn't as good as yours, but I think you'll find you need it far less often. It does not, alas, have Laser Beam Eyes. I'd probably swap out Soul Transfer for it, and just suffer with accuracy in the default slot. It's not a damage dealer; it's just a convenience when you need to hit someone at range.

    You could probably run up to +4x8 with the easier enemy groups with the attached build.

    I'd personally go with the cardiac alpha boost. I think the endurance drain running all out on this build without it could be pretty fierce. If you don't mind chugging blues, Spiritual might be a good alternative to bring back Dark Regeneration faster and buff your regeneration. Cardiac would be a direct damage boost and would at least help endurance a little.

    Oh, your attack chain with this build is Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut -> Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut -> Soaring Dragon -> Gambler's Cut. When defense debuffed, throw another Divine Avalanche -> Gambler's Cut in there before Soaring Dragon, or just spam Divine Avalanche. Use The Lotus Drops liberally in Crowds.

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  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hube02 View Post
    No it doesn't. Solo means alone. Solo means there is no one else around. Solo does not mean not on a team. Solo does not mean you need to wait until there are 20 other people doing something before you can join in. Solo = alone = 1. No matter how you cut it, if other people must help you then you are not doing it "SOLO".
    Ummmmm, yes. I've heard of this word before. I'm pretty sure Arcanaville has too. And I 100% agree with you. Now... what in the world does that definition have to do with what we were debating in our particular sub thread?

    Let me try summarizing a bit:
    Arcana: "[here are SOME concerns that people have with lack of a solo path that can be addressed by certain kinds of group activity that don't require a team]"
    Eva: "group activity that you do not need to actually join a team for addresses none of the concerns people have with a lack of a solo path"
    Me: "[certain kinds of group activities address some of MY concerns with the lack of a solo path, and Arcana gave other examples, so it is false that group activities can't address ANY concerns people have with lack of a solo path]"
    I'm not claiming that ALL concerns are met. I'm not saying that ANY of YOUR particular concerns are met. I'm just saying that SOME concerns in general can be met. I'm disagreeing with the word "none" in Eva's argument. Since some of MY concerns with lack of a solo option can be met, "none" is trivially untrue. We're not all the same. My concerns, even though I strongly desire the solo option, may not be your concerns. I'm not a big fan of black and white, all or nothing arguments. Let's not separate everyone into a mere two groups, and argue all or nothing. People can be complicated. What people like and dislike can be complicated.

    That said, I'd really, really like a solo option. I'm also not in a panic, because I'll be surprised if we don't get one eventually, and I'm the patient type.