brophog02

I've seen that happen a couple of times now, but only with a new lowbie bots.

And it is always resolved when I use a power on them.

It is more than workable......it's great.

The better you are with storm, the better it is. Once you hit Freezing Rain at 16 it is GAME ON!



On Smoke Flash:

Is it skippable? Sure, if you must. It's more damage, really.

But I wouldn't skip it. Ninja's are great at Single Target, and just so-so at AOE. What little AOE they do get is mostly from the Oni, and it is very nice for him to get crits on that rather than not.

Thanks. Looks like a decent mix. I'll throw something together tonight and get a few levels in.

Personally, I find the Fire set one of the blandest (visually) in the entire game. Ice isn't much better.

Both weapon sets are kinda cool to look at, although I honestly liked Archery more before the animation changes (when no one was playing it). It made the set far more playable, but it now lacks 'power'. Snapshot, in particular, looks like a little kid pulling the bow.

I love the look of energy, because you can see the strain in the toon as he tries to compensate for that enormous amount of energy coming out. Whoever made that animation deserves a gold star.

I didn't see this until this morning (unfortunately I almost never look at the server boards).

I could get in on this if there is still room. What do we have so far?

I always pity the tanks and empaths that join a lowbie sewer team when they are expected by their teammates to do things they can't possibly do at that level.

For what you're asking, you simply can't do.

If you are in Defensive/Follow, for instance, and then have the pets attack a target, they'll attack and return to Defensive/Follow after the attack.

What you do instead is 'tankermind'. Get that enemy to attack you and then your pets will defend you against the threat.

Always look at powers at the start, and I pay no attention to anything else. I really just want to see where potential troubles may lie.

/Elec is my choice, hands down.

The biggest reason is that, while Energy and Elec both combine for the same amount of melee damage, it is dispersed differently. With a little recharge, you can get a very fast acting attack chain for /Elec with Havoc Punch, Charged Brawl, and Shocking Grasp while skipping Thunderstrike and its long animation.

Whereas, more of Energy's damage is in Total Focus, which has that long animation.

In terms of utility, Energy is handy (mostly for boost range).......but for blapping, I prefer Electricity.

Outside of build advice (to the OP), one of the skills needed for Energy/Energy is proper targeting. To fully harness an Energy Blaster's mitigation against multiple opponents, constantly be changing targets. As soon as an enemy gets hit with knockback, switch targets. With practice, particularly with Power Push added, it is nothing to have several targets picking themselves off the mat.

Power Push really is a hidden gem that a lot of people don't take. It is just more knockback, but it is guaranteed knockback with better than sniper level accuracy. Even with only a single ACC slotted, it will rarely ever miss and its mag is high enough to knock back virtually anything not immune to the effect. The other single target blasts are relatively low mag, and with the exception of Power Burst, a relatively low chance of knockback. Power Bolt only has a 20% chance and Power Blast only 30%. For an Energy/Energy, Power Thrust can substitute if you want to let the enemy get into melee range first, but there is still a huge benefit to having that power at range against several bosses/LTs.

Personally, I prefer CJ+Hurdle for Energy Blasters. I know a lot of people take flight for concept and personal preference, but I like the freedom to get in and out of melee quickly and nothing does that faster than CJ+Hurdle.

That depends entirely on how good you are with Storm. If you're not a good storm player, then don't bother with the combination.

If you're good at herding, using tornado, and managing the spawn then it can be very powerful. The Ninjas need active mitigation, imo, and that's what Storm does well. The better you start the fight, the better the fight will go. Scatter everything all over the map, and it's going to be an uphill battle. The Ninjas have a lot of damage, but they really need to be in melee to do it. The less they have to run, the better it is for you. If you can keep the mobs close, then you can concentrate the Ninja's attacks and concentrate the debuffs/damage that Storm brings.

Ninjas don't have a lot of AOEs. Caltrops, Rain of Fire, and Fire Breath are about it. That's why it is key to keep things as bunched up as possible. They do bring quite a bit of mitigation though, mostly in the form of knockbacks, slows and stuns.......which all stack nicely with Storm.

It isn't a great AV combination, but like all masterminds, it isn't bad. If bagging AVs is your thing, I suggest one of the standards for that type of thing. Large spawns are fine, if you can mold them to what you want. Leveraging Tornado and Hurricane are key for the combination.

Played properly, there is nothing chaotic about /Storm. Just like any other set, you want to use your powers to keep herds tight and finish them off in an efficient manner.

Ninja/Storm is a fantastic combination and a lot of fun.

Tip for the melee pets:

Bind a goto command to a mouse button.

A few other binds are helpful for stances and such, but this one little tip will put even the spastic ninjas right where they should be.

It's well known that the developer's have taken many ideas over the years from the user base. One of the reasons that this game has such a good following is that there is a bit of communication there.


There are an awful lot of ideas, many of which I'm afraid to say are terrible. They do hide the more effective posts, and make implementation that much more difficult.


This is a guide to help everyone more productively use this particular forum to make the game better, relevant ideas better communicated, and an overall better experience for everyone.

1) Does you idea solve an actual problem within the game? Did you do research to identify the problem, or is this something that was just thrown out there?

This one is a two step process. For any solution, you need a problem in the first place. Therefore, to present a solution, you must define your explicit problem.


Presenting the problem is very key here. Many people assume that just throwing out an idea as a starter is effective. This assumes that someone else, player or dev, will actually do the leg work. This is not likely to be a worthwhile suggestion as it lacks the focus to drive people towards a solution.

Example: Here is how I would fix the pet AI in this game. The problem is......and my solution solves that problem by......my research is this......

This is pretty common. The game engine is old, and we have to work within its confines. Lots of problems are unsolved, untackled, or simply not fixed for time issues. The devs are not lazy, they are busy. A developer has to both bring forth new product and fix the old as much as possible. Simple solutions to well understood problems are always helpful.


Examples that are not problems:

I don't like empaths.
I don't like knockback.
I don't like immobs.
Why isn't the aggro cap the way it used to be.
I want this done so I can feel godlike.
Why don't we have tankmages.
I don't like PVP so change it or I'll quit.
Let us do......(reason ungiven)
This AT has this set, why don't we?
Non-suggestions that should just be in other forums.
Get rid of.... (despite the fact it is well stated why we have....)



2) Make a suggestion as a QOL fix. These are usually easier to implement, and the more common type of suggestion that falls on kind ears. Over time, this game has enjoyed many QOL fixes, many as ideas started by players.


Example: A change to the market UI that would automatically enter the name of an item you already have on the market so that you could buy more or change the price of an item being sold.


Notice that this suggestion has an innate problem attached, just not explicitly. You, the user, would like an easier way to change prices on items. You innate problem is that it is not convenient to have to go through the interface by taking down an item, retyping a search in, and going through the entire process.


3) Does your suggestion make sense in either the MMO genre or Comic genre? How so?


This game exists as a bridge between comics and MMO games. For that reason, we write solutions in such a manner that it sounds plausible.


Example: Blasters shooting while mezzed. From a logical point of view, this doesn't make much sense. If you're encased in a block of ice, how could you shoot? But to bridge the gaming/comic gap, we make up this tale of heroic willpower, where our valiant hero reaches deep down and just barely gets a shot off to save the victim. This is the "story" we write to make it so that you can use lower tier powers while mezzed.......bridging the comics with game balancing. A big part of comics is the explanation of how something that shouldn't exist actually does. In this example, you shouldn't be able to shoot while frozen, so we give it a bit of heroism to spice it up.


4) Has your idea been suggested so often that it has become annoying? Like the research part of Part 1, a simple search can solve this for you.


Some things are just brought up over and over and over again. They come up so often that sides are drawn in the sand. They stop being helpful ideas and just become part of the backdrop.


Examples:

Dual Wielding Pistols.


That's the best example. We get it. We don't need one this week on why it is good to have them on blasters, one next week on why we should have them on corrupters, and one the week after that on why we need to make them into a melee set.

5) Does you idea completely change how the game engine works?


This one is pretty simple. The game is what it is. Small fixes will be done, gross rewrites are highly unlikely. Even with what knowledge you possess, can you figure out a simple way of implementing your idea.


Example: Rewriting the power structure of the game to use a pen and paper style attribute system.


This is nothing like the current system, and therefore extremely unlikely to be done.


Example: We should have flying cars.


You do not have to know how the game engine works, fundamentally, to notice that we have nothing approximating flying cars. Therefore, you should be extra vigilant in making such a suggestion for concern that it will either take a ton of work, or is not possible.


6) Does your thread have a title that explains what it is?

This one should be a no brainer, but isn't for way too many people. Thread titles are made to allow the user to easily sort what is relevant and what is not.


Example of a productive thread title: How to fix Pet AI by....(whatever)

Example of a poor thread title: Suggestion for game.

If I have a limited amount of time, why would I read that second one?


7) Is your thread readable?

Pretty simple, it either is, or it is not.


Bad Example: this ismy solution because i want it done it is a good idea i think bots are the coolest and they should have big laszers when i was a kid i saw a cool bot and it had lasers and it woud be fun if theis gma had that bot thank you


No one will read that. I couldn't even type that.

8) Is your solution, well, a solution, or a question.


Example: Why is X power this way for this AT when it is another way for another AT.


This is not a solution, this is a question. If you cannot think of what a problem could be, and you solution is not in the form of a statement, then you should re-think whether or not it is suggestion material.

9) Is this a wishlist or a suggestion?

Wishlists are things you'd like to have, like a flying pony. A suggestion entails why this game should have them, and ideally some way of implementing that.


10) Is your possible suggestion just a rant of something you don't like, or does it actually serve to help the game?


Example: Get rid of malta.


Some people just will not play malta. They don't like the mezzing and the sapping. These take the form of long rants, with little regard to where any real problem lies with them. These are not likely to be fixed as there was a reason they were put in the game in the first place. For there to be a real suggestion hidden here, there is usually a reason that said topic is no longer applicable due to a significant change in the game system.


Example: Changes to animation times.

Ranting about long animation times is gonna be looked at like you are just complaining, and with so much complaining going on in these types of games, it will be put into the backdrop.

A suggestion is different than a rant because you have done the work to make it presentable as a suggestion.

For example, citing that a sets animation time is not in line with the rest of the AT's powersets is likely to draw a lot of attention, and more productive attention, than just ranting about how it is too long.

[ QUOTE ]
and yes, i do use it to help position mobs with hurricane. One correction though, I find that when mobs are knocked down, they become momentarily immune to the repel effect in hurricane, this apparent bug seriously hurts hurricane's ability to herd mobs up.

[/ QUOTE ]


That "bug" or whatever we want to refer to it as affects a lot of things getting up from knockback. However, all we really need is to keep the enemies off balance so they are not coming directly at you, that way we can move them around a bit.


I move enemies around a lot on all of my stormies. Gale is my sledge hammer, and hurricane is my chisel.