corinna
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Posts
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Joined
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I hit 50 this weekend, and I read Dechs's MFing Warshade guide for the fourth or fifth time.
This build is roughly 1B influence, about as much as I can afford right now. Right now most of the build is filled in with SOs, so I don't have many of the set bonuses, but it plays "OK". I'm really in need of more global recharge to keep Eclipse running. I'll be using my Alpha for extra recharge, but I'll probably go with Barrier for my Destiny once I get that unlocked.
Regarding Inky Aspect: It's been helpful as an active filler defense while Eclipse is running out. It buys me a few seconds for another Stygian Circle.
Stone Daemon suggested sacrificing slots in my Dwarf form. From my previous build, I've moved 6 slots from Dwarf to Nova and to my main attacks. Also, I'd previously been 6-slotting my human Mire, but I've moved slots from there into muled defense powers so I can 2-slots LotGs.
I'm looking forward to fitting all the pieces together to see how it plays.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Science Warshade
Primary Power Set: Umbral Blast
Secondary Power Set: Umbral Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Leadership
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ebon Eye- (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
- (3) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (36) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (36) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (36) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection
- (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (5) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage
- (9) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Damage/Recharge
- (9) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (37) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (37) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (37) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Recharge/Form Empowerment
- (A) Accuracy IO
- (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge
- (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge
- (33) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (48) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance
- (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge
- (33) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
- (33) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (34) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
- (34) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
- (34) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge
- (50) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
- (50) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (39) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (39) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (39) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (48) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
- (A) Ragnarok - Damage
- (40) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
- (40) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (40) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
- (46) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
- (42) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (42) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage
- (42) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (43) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Accuracy IO
- (43) Recharge Reduction IO
- (43) Recharge Reduction IO
- (45) Resist Damage IO
- (45) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Recharge
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (48) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (7) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (11) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (11) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (21) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (5) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (7) Devastation - Damage/Endurance
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (15) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (17) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (17) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (19) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (15) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (19) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (A) Accuracy IO
- (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing
- (29) Touch of the Nictus - Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration/Recharge
- (31) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (31) Touch of the Nictus - Heal
- (A) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (27) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (27) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (29) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
- (23) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
- (25) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (25) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
- (21) Damage Increase IO
- (23) Damage Increase IO
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Since my Warshade 5 slender bars from level 50, it's time to really start considering a more-or-less permanent build for end-game and other content.
I've been playing a tri-form from ~30 forward, and here are my problems:
1) Tri-form effectively precludes using toggles like Orbiting Death and Inky Aspect.
2) Slots are getting spread thin between human, dwarf, and nova attacks.
My nova and dwarf attacks are 4-slotted, and my human Shadow Bolt, Shadow Blast, Gravity Well and Gravitic Emanation are 5-slotted.
While Nova has higher base numbers, I feel like I'm cheating it by only 4-slotting the attacks, but I don't have very much anywhere else in my build.
My Dwarf slotting feels okay, but I just can't seem to balance Human and Nova forms. Maybe I should skip Nova altogether and 6-slot my human attacks? Then I could leave Orbiting Death running more often. -
Is Bitter Freeze Ray meant to be effected by the snipe change? It has the long animation time.
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Dropping all the prerequisites for power pool powers would be a huge improvement. Is there any T4 or T5 power pool power that is so useful that players should be required to pay the cost of picking one or two earlier powers?
* Players investing in the Fighting pool could get back a power choice.
* Squishies could get decent status protection from Acrobatics without limiting their travel power choices.
* The fear powers from the Presence pools might get some use.
Without changing a single power, dropping the prerequisites could open up a lot of room for players to improve their characters. -
Quote:If the illusionists stopped phasing when mezzed then there would be a ton of powers that would make fighting them a LOT easier. I would love that. It would moot this entire suggestion.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i think the best way to solve what your looking for is to make it so that the illusionists stop phasing when mezzed
currently they phase regardless of what effects are on them including mezzes which is the most annoying since other enemies dont get tier 9 effects and whatnot when they get mezzed
As far as making the difficulty lower? I have a couple of 50s who can fight any other group of comparable difficulty at +2/x6 (Peacebringer, tank, defender), but can be quickly felled by a Carnie spawn that is only +1/x1, and part of it--a large part of it really, is due to the phasing.
The phasing seems to be part of the challenge of the Carnies. My suggestion is meant to provide a tactical alternative to lowering the difficulty or avoiding the content altogether. But if mezzes stopped the phasing, that would be super. -
Quote:The window is fine when facing only one. The window is fine when facing several while on a team. Facing two or three at once (or four!) can be very tricky, and there is always a good chance of being defeated in such circumstances.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
The phase shift on Illusionists is 5 seconds on, 10 seconds off. You should *have* a pretty good window to take them out - they can't heal much in that 5 seconds, and if you know your attacks, you can make the most of the unphased time.
A temp power that delayed activation of phase shift would make fights against these types of opponents easier, and with a limited number of charges the use of the power would need to be tactical. It would be wasteful to use it on every single Illusionist, but when faced with several it would definitely be helpful.
None of the temp powers are strictly necessary to play the game. For instance, the Recovery Serum and Med Pack temp powers are redundant to Rest. But the temp powers add some diversity and can make the game more fun to play. This one would be particularly nice since it introduces a way of handling one of the more difficult mob types in the game. -
I'd like a craftable temp power I can use on a self-phasing villain (Carnie or otherwise) that could disable activation of phase shift long enough for me to have a chance of digging in and taking out a lieutenant-class enemy (15-30 seconds?).
This temp power would be indispensable when playing solo, especially against Carnies. In teams it's not such a big deal to fight a boss who phase shifts, yet I am regularly defeated while soloing groups. It's particularly annoying when a to-hit heal or buff misses due to a phase shift.
Mobs already phase shifted could not be targeted (as usual). This power would work by preventing the future use of phase-shifting powers for the duration of the effect. -
Thanks everyone for showing up! We had nearly 20 heroes and villains join us in Pocket D for tonight's contest.
1st Prize: Lady Ashara
2nd Prize: Turing
3rd Prize: 1st Patriot
Best Background: Turing
A total of 450M in prize influence was awarded tonight!
Thanks to Ukase and Nena Skylark for their sponsorship.
Look to see this happen more regularly for the next several weeks. -
Quote:Hey, wait a minute, does that mean Force Bubble might be useful? Hmm... better give that a try.Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
If you defeat the guards before they reach him, or if you keep them out of the range of his Power of Tartarus (60' Sphere centered on him), he will not receive the buff from sacrificing the guards.
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There have been a dearth of costume contests on Liberty lately, so I aim to do something about that. Therefore:
Project Genesis Presents...
** Costume Contest! **
PLACE: Pocket D, Liberty Server
TIME: 8:30pm EST, Friday June 15
ELIGIBILITY: Anyone who can receive influence!
100M Influence up for prizes!
First Prize: 75M influence
Second Prize: 15M influence
Third Prize: 5M influence
Best Character Background: 5M influence
Members of the Project Genesis supergroup will be the judges. Hope to see lots of people there. -
Arbiter Hawk,
My main is a illusion/force field controller. I'm kind of disappointed that the force field power set doesn't seem to have very much to offer in the fight against Tyrant. Yes, Dispersion Bubble can help mitigate some of the stuns, but that requires me being close enough to the action to take the damage myself--generally a lethal proposition. Yes, the small bubbles can mitigate damage from the Olympians, but in the trials I've been a part of those don't seem to constitute the major threat in that stage of the fight.
Am I wrong? Does Force Field bring anything substantial to the fight the way other secondaries do? Without a debuff, damage buff, heal, or rez, I feel like I'm just taking up space for someone who can contribute more. -
Quote:Repulsion Bomb is actually pretty handy on my Illusion/Force Fielder.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
Repulsion Bomb sucks. That's what you mainly need to know.
The main reason to take it is there isn't much else to pick from. The power might be okay with reasonable cast time. But it takes forever to cast, does low damage, doesn't even deal a guaranteed stun to Minions, and has a recharge way higher than a typical AoE blast. It's also only a 12 foot radius.
On paper, the power deals the same damage as an Tier 1 AoE blast. It would be just about the worst AoE blast in the game tho for its recharge, cast time, projectile speed, and radius. I guess that's better than nothing but it's certainly not better than a decent debuff or control power that actually works.
It has a chance to stun, so although it doesn't do containment damage, it can help set it up. Thus it's a good opening attack against a group (especially in itrials).
It does knockdown, so it's helpful for damage mitigation.
It takes Force Feedback / Chance for Recharge, which procs often and does quite a bit for my recharge times.
It also takes Ragnarok--five slotted, that's another 10% recharge.
It does decent damage!
Force Field could use some major help, but I'd start by improving Repulsion Field, Force Bubble, and Force Bolt before any further changes to this power. -
Quote:/bind ctrl+click powexecname "Incandescence Radial Epiphany" (or the incandescence of your choice).Originally Posted by Ukaserex
Incandescence does work - if someone is fast enough to assemble the league while someone is still "floating", but the beam hasn't hit, the badge effort is not compromised.
See you all tomorrow. Pack greens and Destiny:Rebirth or Incandescence.
Green stuff? Ctrl-click on a safe spot. Should take only a second.
For this to work, it would be very helpful for:
1) everyone to accept TP w/o prompt
2) coordinate turns for incandescence being fired since it's on a 2m cooldown. -
Looking forward to it!
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I've tried to get some other events rolling recently without much enthusiasm from the crowd (although the itf is a perennial fav) . It seems like the server blahs are somewhat pervasive the past couple of weeks.
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Official Threads are not places we herd you to to ignore you - They are created so that all of the player comments on an issue can be easily read and digested by the devs.
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CuppaJo,
When these threads grow to be 50 or 100 pages long they are not easily read by the players. Posters frequently qualify their comments with remarks like, "I don't know if this point has been made yet, but...". As the massive number of posts stack up without developer response posters become anxious and begin to doubt if they're being heard. Players then create new threads to distinguish their thoughts from the 'herd'.
Like I said, I'm not sure what the best solution is but massive threads aren't helpful to the players, even if they are helpful to the devs.
Thanks for being our voice though, I know you've helped me a few times. -
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Change the effect back to cower, and make its duration 4 minutes. People want to use it all the time? Great, force them to slot it for recharge. Then it WOULD be a great power (ranged area lockdown as well as debuff), and on the other hand it wouldn't be the overpowered 1-power, 0-slots, perma-lockdown that it was right after I3.
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I totally, totally agree with you: Make it work like they did right after it was released in I3, but make the power less available. Here are a few suggestions, including the one prior:
* Increase its recharge time. I'd say 2 minutes so that it's on a similar cycle as Flash
* Reduce its accuracy. Give it a -10 or -20 penalty so that it requires some slotting to be effective
* Reduce the number of fear ticks.. maybe 4 or 5
There's a lot that can be done to balance the power without making it frustrating to use. -
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I have only the vaguest idea what it's about, but I assume it's something to do with people's powers and how they weren't used within their temporary limitations.
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Let me try to illuminate the issue a little further for you then.
This has also to do with mobs leaping off the high platforms in Orenbega down to the bottom and therefore tacking on an extra two or three minutes to a mission just to chase down one or two mobs.
This is about mobs affected by a seperate toggle power running into the next room and aggroing everything in it.
This is about your teammates telling you, "Don't use that stupid power! It's messing up the game!"
I've had teammates irritated by the KB powers of my Phantasms, but at least they're tolerable as they tend to do lots of damage (nevertheless I respectfully withhold them when teaming with fire tankers and the like). Spectral Terror, even with the changes that Geko proposes, may very likely continue to be an unpopular power simply because its practical application is very limited. -
My point has consistantly been (paraphrasing) that game challenges should originate from the environment not from the powers themselves. I feel like I've answered the point to my satisfaction, and I'm sorry if I've failed to make yours.
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Condescending, verbose, and non-sequitor is not an effective mode of discourse, especially when performed simultaneously. My statement was in response to this statement of yours:
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Concerning discourse, perhaps we can conduct it without resorting to ad hominem remarks. Although this is the internet; perhaps that's too much to hope for. At any rate, I'm sorry that you felt condecended to. I was trying to be as clear as possible. My admittedly verbose reply was meant to reveal the fabric of my perspective so that you could better see where I'm coming from.
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My question was, on what basis do you make this assertion? This statement doesn't talk about spectral terror. It seems to argue that any side effect they put into ST you don't like demonstrates some sort of lack of understanding or error on the part of the developers.
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I make it on the simplest basis possible; of what is fun and what isn't. When one's powers hinder play, it is not fun, and is therefore an undesirable play element. As I wrote in an earlier post, an alternate solution for tempering Spectral Terror would be to reduce its fear duration.
As for the developers lacking understanding, I think they've already demonstrated on several occasions that they lacked the foresight to gauge player reaction to power set changes. Case in point, Geko's assumption that players would prefer knockback to knockdown. I think you'd have to concede that point, anyway.
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It seems clear to me that not only can powers have deleterious side effects, but that such side effects represent one of the few ways to perform any balancing in the game at all. By your statement, the END crash at the end of elude is a mistake on the part of the devs - they ought not to be creating challenges by putting an undesirable side effect in the power, but should do something else entirely.
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Anticipating this argument, I'd written a paragraph dileneating a power's cost and its effect. I deleted it because I thought the distinction was too fine to easily argue. I've since reconsidered and concluded that there is no difference. However, as you mention Elude, I'd like to point out a trend to you: powers such as Adrenalin Boost and Mutation have had their disorient drawback removed, and now that Perma-Unstoppable is no longer possible, the power itself has fallen by the wayside. If Elude is ever made so that it can't be made permanent then it too will follow Unstoppable into semi-retirement. The developers realize that powers with penalties result in powers that are infrequently used and commonly complained about. -
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Why is it inherently wrong for powers to have challenging side effects?
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The main mechanic of City of Heroes is to arrest enemies, to do so quickly[1] without accruing debt.[2] All powers (including those related to travel) must be able to help the player execute this mission. If a power fails to do this it's not worth taking. A side effect (or indeed, the main effect) of a power, on balance, may reduce the players efficiency; that is to say, whatever usefulness a power has is overshadowed by its drawback.
Let's examine a power which fails to pass the test: Dimension Shift. Although Dimension Shift can help reduce the accumulation of debt, its caster has no control over the duration of the power. The speed which a group arrests enemies is actually reduced by Dimension Shift and therefore you will find few Gravity controllers that take this power, much fewer those that actually use it.
Now let's examine Spectral Terror (hereforth, ST) under the same lamp. The original ST cast a fear effect in a cone range with the intent of sparing a party accruing debt. It's drawback of slowing down the party was judged to not be worth its benefit in the overwhelming majority of encounters and therefore was seldom taken by a controller. After the I3 changes, ST caused enemies to stay in place (making them more susceptible to AoE attacks) and reduced their combat output in several ways (debuffs, fear effect). After I3, ST was excellent for both arresting enemies quickly and reducing the occurance of debt. Currently ST no longer speeds the party along, it only reduces the occurance of debt. The question remaining is this: Does the extra time it takes to arrest an enemy effected by ST offset the reduction in debt?
[1]arrest enemies
Powers that significantly reduce the targets hit points, or powers which cause the enemy to take more damage such as defense or resist debuffs. Also, travel powers which reduce the time it takes to move from one encounter to the next.
[2]without accruing debt
Powers that reduce the damage that players take, powers that heal damage, powers that debuff or place status effects on enemies. -
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Now, excessive and deliberate scatter can be a bit much, but what Geko is describing for spectral terror sounds reasonable to me. On the other hand, watching mobs run/skate and superjump after being disoriented is too much, in my view.
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Wow, it sounds good to you? Great, then maybe we can convince Geko to let you have my Spectral Terror and I'll take your Thunderclap in its place.
Game challenges should originate from the environment or from other players, not from the controls or side effect of powers themselves. If the immobilize side effect of Spectral Terror made the power too strong, then decrease the fear duration.
I've had several missions since the infamous 1/18 patch where my use of Spectral Terror has caused enemies to run and hide. This has added (I have to guess) an accumulated 15-20 minutes of frustrating hide-and-seek to missions that have 'defeat all' as a requirement. I've learned to reserve use of the power to AVs where its useful for the debuff and little else. If after the changes enemies still flee the Spectral Terror then I will remove it from my hero. -
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I believe I speak for a plurality of Illusion controllers when I say that *any* scattering is going to be too much.
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Join the ice blaster and storm defender world for a while if you want to see the true face of scattering.
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Maybe you forgot to read my signature... level 26 ice/ice blaster and level 25 storm/energy defender.
And BTW, although Ice Storm is really bad about scattering, at least my storm defender has control over where mobs are pushed. I'm really digging Gale, having respecced into it. -
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Been doing some changes to the ST. This is how it should work soon:
Hopefully, this should reduce the scattering affect of ST.
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Geko,
I believe I speak for a plurality of Illusion controllers when I say that *any* scattering is going to be too much.
Why can't we have Spectral Terror set back to how it was when Issue 3 debuted? It was actually useful then. I'd be able to drop it around a corner to keep my team from having to engage two mobs at once. If the mobs scatter (especially on a map like Orenbega) it's just going to be a pain in the butt trying to track everyone down.
I know you're trying to make a power that's both fun and balanced. Chasing down mobs is not fun though, ever. I'd rather see the Fear duration substantially reduced than have the mobs scatter.
Thanks for posting though. Keep at it, tiger.
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Statesman,
Thanks for being so responsive in this thread. I'd like to bring up an idea that I've seen other pose and have posed myself several times before:
Bosses and Lieutenants should not only be strong themselves, but achieve strength by automatically buffing the other mobs near them.
If bosses added 10% resist all and 10% damage buff to all nearby units* (and if lieutenants added half that), then all encounters would be more dangerous but the heroes would steadily gain the upper-hand as they defeated mobs.
* with a reasonable buff cap of course