dave_p
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Posts
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Quote:New Market UI let me soft-cap my defenses at lvl 20!Originally Posted by Another_Fan
Perhaps if the thread were about how wonderful the new market is, a red name would come around say something about how that needs looking into to be balanced lest the market become the FOTM, or that too many people were using it to do things too easily. -
Toughest = Stone in Granite. Good aura too and you can build for mobility.
Best for tanking in the traditional sense? Shields, because it's tough enough, and can grab & hold aggro better. Mobility = better aggro grabbing. Yeah, my Stony runs fast in Granite too, but can't jump over objects. Plus you get SC as another aggro grabbing tool, not to mention phenomenal offense & mitigation.
Invul & Ice would be a close second/third, because again, they're mostly tough enough, and grab aggro fast. They have a big hole to psi, which is often overstated, but still, it's there.
WP has a horrible aggro aura. Dark, Elec & Fire have to hit rolls in theirs (and pulse slowly to boot). They can all be built to be tough enough (w/holes here and there), but their aggro-generation falls short to the top 4.
BTW, I think Stone & Granite in particular is one of the hardest to use *well*. Any moron can pick Granite up at 32 and never turn it off, but those are some of the poorest tanks (on average, there are exceptions) I encounter in the game. -
SS & Ice Melee for scrappers. SS will likely be tweaked though. Oh, and Mace for sure. It's just not right that I can't currently make a bat-wielding scrapper. And Axe. A proper berserker is an Axe/WP or Axe/Regen scrapper, not a SD/Axe tank like I got now.
BS for tankers. My armored knight looks okay w/his Mace, but he really needs his Broadsword. They might have to tweak Parry tho--giving any tank (say, Fire, Elec or Dark) basically easy def-cap to melee/lethal would be a bit too tasty (yes, scrappers do this now, but tanks aren't as damage focused, and it's easier for them to spam Parry while sacrificing some offense and still do their jobs). Also Spines, just so I can run Ice/Spines and have 3 taunt (& 2 damage) auras going at once.
Defensively, I'm pretty meh about SR tanks, Regen brutes/tanks, Eng or Ice Armor in general. I wanted ELA for tanks for the longest time, and that's turning out pretty damn meh too. -
Quote:Despite the fact that the devs never post in here, I'd really like to think they're at least monitoring some of the threads in here, esp one like this where the overwhelming majority are in agreement about a bad feature. I think I counted about 3 or 4 pro-new UI so far and everybody else against, most of us strongly.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
*Tries whistling three times to summon a red name*
I really get the feeling someone should be reading this. I mean, it's normal for people to hate certain features after an issue goes live...
But it ain't normal for there to be majority agreement on suckage factor =S -
Quote:Wouldn't want it on a brute tho. Suck for fury.Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards
Don't forget the double slows. Hell yeah, that's some nice soft mitigation right thar.
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Quote:Liquefy's hold component is rather pathetic (mag 2). I wasn't aware that the pulses could stack like w/VG, but even if you slot for hold (which most ppl don't), you're only gonna get a ~8s duration, which means the holds would have to pulse faster than that, which I don't think they do (10s?). Even if it had VG's 6s pulse, they'd only stack for 2s for a total of mag4. You're definitely not going to get through a mag 50 protection of an AVs while the triangles are up.Originally Posted by Most_Amazing
I personally have an Earth/Storm/Earth Controller and would not change a thing about it.... however I do hate using a set more than once but I could not resist and now I'm rolling an Earth/Sonic Controller... according to some friends and the way I have Mids slotted, Volcanic Gases + Liquefy should hold AVs.... then your throwing down quicksand and earthquake spamming stalagmites and fissure, overall a nasty build... However I dearly enjoy my Earth/Storm... just keep in mind both builds will be VERY End Heavy...
The debuffs of Liquefy are what's awesome about that power (which is why most ppl slot for those, esp the -to hit). I always call Liquefy (on my Son/Son defender) the "I Win Power, but no one knows why." Massive -def, -to hit, tiny hold, small slow, small KD, small damage. I'll cast it when the sh** hits the fan, we'll win the fight, but no one will have a clue why.
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A few people have already touched on this point, but I thought I'd echo it. I was frankenslotting some of my toons last night when the thought popped up momentarily that the market interface was a PitA to the point where it's almost not worth the effort. Think about that for a second.
It's always an effort to IO up your toon vs. just buying SOs or whatever, and I've always thought this was the biggest barrier to entry player base that simply ignores IOs in general (and let's face it, there are a LOT of 50s out there that don't have a single IO bonus in their power window). Those of us that know & care about the wonders of IOs (whether to frankenslot or go for bonuses) know full well it's worth the effort to craft recipes, buy & sell, earn through drops, etc and get our toons powered well beyond mere SO level.
Now, if crafting veterans look at the new interface as being (almost) not worth the effort, how the hell are new players going to approach it? Again, I do not think the current interface problems are lrn2play (lrn2use) in nature, but more of ergonomics and poor design. What about those "casual" players that barely used the old market? Are they going to want to learn a whole new system or are they going to just chuck it all?
As for marketeering, I'm just glad I'm well & retired w/my fat nest egg full of Fulms. There's no way I'd try to make money off of this system now. I realize this is a point of celebration to many who hate ebil. Your day may have finally arrived, but at what cost?
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Ice Melee would be fantastic for scrappers. Frost & Frozen Aura (i.e. Foot Stomp w/a worthless sleep) at scrapper levels would make for some very nice AoE damage. It wouldn't be as good as Fire or Spines, but would offer some nice mitigation in exchange. IM would blow away sets like BS, DM & MA for farming or just generic AoE kill times. IM would however absolutely scrape the bottom of the barrel for Pylon results.
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I like Option 2. Let's use the term "Fulm" as units of measurement. Usage: "I have 7 Fulms in my screencap, plus the inf cap. Smurphy's giving away 10 Fulms in his contest."
Give us our Fulms! -
Figuring out which of the 6 Doctored Wounds IOs not to slot is truly one of the great nitpicks of our time.
I usually skip on the End/Rech. Rech redux (and End redux) have diminishing returns, and end redux isn't quite the premium for me after I've slotted my various uniques. Of course, on powers like DP, I might do it differently, but I think on my FA tank & scrapper, I skip the End/Rech DW for HF.
But yeah, .4s vs 2.4% heal... oh the decisions we agonize over.
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SD/Axe is a good combo. I like mine quite a bit and it's a great conceptual fit. Doesn't take a ton to hit softcap to all 3 positions. In fact, I was surprised how close I was one day w/mostly cheap Multi Strike sets in my PBAoEs (+CJ + Weave + the Steadfast unique). Just needed 1 full sets each of Mako's & ToD and I was set by lvl 40-ish. Axe has some good mitigations too. The weak AoE will be offset (and then some!) by SC.
Leveling up, your damage will suck, but what lowbie tank damage doesn't suck?
Edit: More on synergy - Axe is lethal, SC is smashing. That's a bit of variety, but if I were purely playing for min/max'ing, I'd mix in some exotic damage. If you pick up, say, Fireball later, you're kinda set. Axe has a lot of KD's as mitigation, same w/SC. Downside is if you're facing KD-resistant foes. Mostly though, Shield & Axe go together conceptually, even better than Shield & Mace, IMO. Now if they'd only bring Broadswords to tanks...
As for AAO & Axe, well, AAO goes w/everything, but you'd least want to pair it w/something that's ST-centric like Dark, EM or Stone. Axe is pretty middling for AoE damage (behind Fire, ELM, SS, Ice, DB & Mace), but still has a decent cone in addition to WA (which is pretty gimp, actually), so you can still leverage AAO nicely. -
Quote:'Mites & TClap would give you a mag 5 stun, but you'd also have to be in PBAoE range. Earth thrives from range, and both Earth & TA have powers you can cast around corners.Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
Actually I still give the edge to Storm over TA just for the Stalagmites + Thunderclap combo gives you a quick 1-2 combo to shut down everybody.
Also, as awesome as VG is, it's not an instant AoE lockdown (which, considering you can cast around a corner, doesn't need to be), which TA provides in spades w/EMP Arrow for those "oh sh**" moments. And if you want to stack lockdowns on bosses, you can't much beat VG + EMP Arrow, all from a safe distance (even around a corner, since you can just target EMP-A on a mob on the fringe and keep most of the spawn blocked from view).
ST, Ice + Fossilize = held boss, w/no return fire, as long as you cast them in that order. Hell, you can even stack 6 mags of immobs if you're so inclined.
Storm is great, and has maybe comparable debuffs to TA--TA has more total, but you have to cast more powers, i.e. FR vs. Disruption + Acid + OSA. Plus you can just keep stuff like Hurricane & SM running. Storm likely does more damage as well w/LS & Tornado vs. OSA, though Tornado's a bit trickier to use. Storm also gets an underrated heal. For purposes of mob positioning, damage & buff (OS), Storm wins out. Debuffs are about even. There's no way Storm comes even close to TA for overall control though. Earth/TA is the control king, bar none. -
Quote:I sorta like that feature too, but I fail to see how it's much of an improvement over just looking at the last five pricing. I mean, if you want to find the same item (same level) in the market to place further bids, that's great, but if you just wanted to know what the last 5 sales went for, you could always do that in the old interface.Originally Posted by Fusion_7
There is one thing I do like so far though that has save me a ton of time. Normally before I place an item to sell, I will usually want to see what kind of bids that current item is getting at the market so I kind of know where to set my selling price. With the "find" feature, it immediately takes you to that item without having to search for it again. This is very nice.
BTW, this is sort of a shortcut I've found for myself--if I want to buy more copies of a hard-to-find recipe, and *I happen to have the exactly recipe in my inventory*, I just drag it into the interface and hit "Find". No, that doesn't happen a lot.
Well, that's one person so far, anyway.Quote:Originally Posted by Warkupo
I like it, but then I'm still using Vista, so what do I know. I think it probably suffers the same stigma as Vista; The interface is ultimately easier to use, but the playerbase was so used to the old system that this new one feels needlessly complicated.
I tried to make it clear in my OP that I really don't think this is any sort of learning curve issue. I've spent many years designing database front ends for Windows, mostly for SPC software. I have a good feel of how things should work ergonomically, and what doesn't; what's intuitive and what's not (tab-shifting focus). I'm also a stickler for efficiency and smooth work flow (love those keyboard shortcuts). I really think the current new interface is clunky and full of bad implementation regardless of how good we get at manipulating it. I imagine many of us will get quite familiar w/the quirks and figure out all the shortcuts, but I still think I'll prefer the old interface, and by quite a bit.
Best solution? Just give us the ability to toggle bet. the old & new. It's just the front end to access the market database--I can't imagine it'd be all that hard to implement. Kinda like giving XP users the "Classic" look option. Please?
Oh, one last suggestion: make the mousescroll useful. Maybe it's just my mouse or drivers, but the amount of movement when I scroll my mousewheel is so tiny that I never use it to scroll down the various lists. This alone would make sorting through the various screens a lot easier. Again, this could just be me. -
Quote:Yeah, which is why I turned off Autocomplete pretty quickly in my self-tutorial. Salvage is no problem atm.Originally Posted by Fulmens
One thing I've found: you can still use "ert" to search for "inert" if you turn off autocomplete.
Ah, I see that, thanks. Still, it's really annoying to have to manually scroll down to the one you want instead of, say, clicking on recipes, typing "Posi" and seeing the AoE Blast Posi set.Quote:Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
The Recipes-->Other is still there, it's just that the Recipes category is sorted now, so Other subcategory is down in the center of the list.
I'm being super-careful about that right now, but I know it's gonna cost me and big sooner or later.Quote:I agree on the persistent bid amount. Several times, I've retyped my bids due to habit doubled the digits on my bid to a stupendous amount. I've been lucky so far to be able to catch them.
The bottom of the market, I'm writing off as, "I need to get used to." I think I can learn to adapt w/that portion, though I have some grumblings about it right now. The top half is sort of a disaster. -
I expected an adjustment period, but the simple fact that I can't seem to sort by recipe/enhancement/salvage *while doing a search* is killing me. Maybe there's a way to do this and I'm being blind, but I would think the intuitive method would be to click down on, say, Recipe, then start typing. The result of the searches should only be for recipes of whatever I type in. But when I click on Recipe, the word Recipe pops in the search window, and any subsequent search is always a global one.
Take for example: I'm looking for lvl 30-40 Defense Buff recipes for my memorization badge. Before, I'd click on Recipe - Other, then type "def" and be done. Now, I'm having to select the exact level (30), type "defense", then scroll down until I see "Invention: Defense Buff (Recipe)", which I guess I can start typing and let autocomplete, except it's a useless feature I disabled in the 1st 5 minutes of playing w/the new interface.
I see some good promise for the new interface, but they seem to have zero insight into ergonomics and ease of use. Two things I'd highly suggest to the devs is adding the ability to quickly & easily filter our searches, much like the old way, and also let us use the freakin Tab key to switch from each text box. So if I'm bidding 5000 for a recipe, I should be able to hit Tab and be taken to the quantity box. That'd be intuitive.
Finally, the persistent last inf bid is dangerous. If you're buying a bunch of stuff, go low to high. Last thing you want to do is bid 100M on a purp recipe, then decide to buy a Inanimate Carbon Rod and forget to reset the price. Wipe the last bid price please, or at least give us the option to.
Again, if there's a way to do any of the above that I'm just not seeing, I'd appreciate any pointers, but right now, I'm finding the market interface super frustrating, and not because of any learning curve. -
Quote:Right, currently Grav's "thing" is its annoying powers--Dim Shift & WH. Now WH used properly is very good, but it still comes late and has a small-ish radius, and used poorly is just awful. Grav is sometimes mistaken as another "damage" set to compete w/Fire or Plant, and it's just laughably not. Reducing Propel's animation to a 1.5-2.0 sec range would still not get it in Fire or Plant's range (cuz AoE still wins, and by a lot), but at least you could carve out a niche.Originally Posted by Local_Man
I would be concerned that if the animation time were reduced too much, that they would have to bring down the damage to compensate. Having that one, heavy hitting attack is one of the things that makes the Gravity set unique.
Actually, Lift has a comparable DPA w/Levitate which has a longer animation, so I have no problems w/its damage. I always did think that it should have a low mag (2), short stun effect attached to it. I mean, you just dropped a guy on his head, right? Wouldn't be horribly powerful (ST, minions only), but it'd add some more unique, fun features to Grav.Quote:Lift should get a boost -- I see no reason why Lift shouldn't be the same as Mind's Levitate. Or here's an odd idea -- If Lift has to have lower damage than Levitate for whatever reason, it should do something different.
My first controller ever was Grav/FF, I think. Way back at launch. Deleted him around 20-ish. I tried something else to the 30s, might've been Grav/Storm, tho I doubt it, cuz one of my surviving controllers from launch is my Ice/Storm, and I'm pretty sure I didn't like dup'ing powersets even back then. Anyway, because of my Ice/Storm, Grav/Storm's out of the question, but yeah, there are a lot of nifty tricks that combo can pull off. WH & Hurricane for positioning is a good one. The soft immob w/FR's nice too (Sleet + Tentacles on my Cold/Dark is very nice). Of course, the flip side is the soft immob w/Tornado.Quote:As for trying a Grav controller again, have you tried it as a Grav/Storm? 
But I may try a Grav/Therm or FF if they fix Grav enough. I've always wanted a Grav/FF for concept (I wanted a TK mutant at launch, but non-telepath, so Mind wouldn't work), but I just couldn't get the combo to feel powerful enough. Also, I wanna roll a new troller (again, unique powersets, only), but the new Elec set is doing nothing for me atm, and I just don't like Mind. -
Faster animating Propel would be nice, if really, really overdue. Propel's DPA is currently dead last among all the Grav single target "attacks" (that includes Crush & Grav Dist.), not to mention you're stuck for almost 4 seconds during a fight while the animation goes off. I mean, ppl hate Flash because of how long it takes to cast and Propel's worse, and all for a ST attack. Bringing down its activation to Grav Dist levels would make Propel the best ST DPA power for controllers and on par w/a T1 or 2 blaster attack once Containment is figured in (no BU or Aim, of course). Would make Grav much more attractive as a solo set.
For teaming, things still need to be done for Dim Shift & Wormhole. Moving Wormhole up and upping the radius would be about perfect (leave Dim Shift as a sleep-like power that most ppl will just continue to skip). Dunno if even all that would make me try a Grav troller yet again. I'd have to see what the new Elec set is going to be like first. -
Wow, that sucks. Still, redraw isn't adding a full second to your attack animation. Burst has almost Blaster tier 3 DPA (actually better than Power Burst or Shout, worse than Blaze, BIB & Blazing Arrow).
I'll have to try a dual build or load up test once my VEAT hits 24 and I go Crab. Burst might be worth keeping, redraw and all. -
So I'm looking at the various SoA DPAs and noticed that Burst had a much better DPA than Longfang, because Longfang has a 2s activation vs 1s for Burst. Is that right? Both Mids' and CoD agree on that stat. All other numbers being equal (and they are... actually, I think the -def from burst lasts an extra 3s...), why would anyone take Longfang over Burst?
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Freezing Touch at 35 seems very late. Do you have enough attacks when SSK'ed down to a lower level? Ice Sword's not much to brag about, but it's kind of a bread & butter attack too. At least pick up Ice Blast from your epic?
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Ice Melee has swords too, you know. Too bad they both suck... FWIW, Ice Melee does do better AoE than either of the weapon sets. See guide in sig.
Mace is slightly better for AoE damage, but I think Axe has slightly better mitigation w/the KD's vs Stuns. Really, they're very close. If you want a Viking though, Axe all the way. My modern-day Viking, Eirik Varangian, is SD/Axe, and he kicks much booty. Mace is maybe better paired w/Dark to stack the stuns. -
The only reason I rolled up a Brute (to bring him over to Blue side) instead of a Scrapper is because Scrappers don't get Super Strength. Having said that, I'm loving my SS/SD brute, esp. w/my Son/Kin corr duo buddy. SS/SD Scrapper would be sick though.
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FWIW, when I ran Herostats w/Mud Pots maxed for damage & 1 dam proc, the dam proc did about 16.66% overall damage, which is worth about 1 SO's worth of damage. That figure was pretty consistent through various gaming sessions, so I always plugged that in my head. Of course the proc will be worth proportionally less on higher damaging auras. e.g. Blazing Aura, but it's prolly pretty close. So yeah, ED max, then add procs.
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I'm trying to play w/the new Mids' for I17, but the data tables are borked atm. I'll try again when they're fixed, cuz I don't wanna roll it back.
Wait, I think I posted a ranged-capped build on my guild forum as a theoretical build. It's not your build by a long shot (no need for Ice Armor for one thing), just one way to get to ranged def-cap w/a Fire/Ice blaster. Or at least very close (like 44%?), which then you could sub in the newly gimped BotZ set to get the last 1% or so by gimping yet another power a little bit.
To reiterate, I would *not* do this, but would settle for a 32%-ish ranged def and combine & chew purp insps on a regular basis, but it could be done. At the very least, I'd make it a dual build, cuz I love my Rain of Fire, esp for big events (raids, invasions, etc).
Anyway, try this: I can't verify it'll work, but I think it should:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1417;695;1390;HEX;|
|78DA9D93C94F535114C6EF2B2DA5734B2973A14C42192AEC1 C162A4223092448919|
|54A4AB9C2D3FAFAF25A1275E5D218D4C48D2B9CE20026CE73 FC57FC371C1353CF3D|
|DF2DC6851B5FDAEFF7DEB9E7DCEF9C37CC5D980A0A71F9903 042478BF972797992B|
|4221D6FAE604AAB20FD5947CA4B7265C3B1BC428836BDBCBC 90B7D6E46A266B3A12|
|25A9DA4A6EC3B64B4E25335390CB7379CBB4378AF98A59B26 233D6BA74A4452BFA2|
|4385F2A1533B3326F9BD61A2EB266C592E5B29F2F72B694AB 915AD2AA74CAEBA6DD|
|386D9B854CB6983FAFB6578E175BA9B134FD0F8BDA51F5882 DC28470DD66F8EF303|
|AEF32BAEE3146EF33AEFCB32A8ABC56E475618F2EEC31496A A0CA6DBCE690FB0DF0|
|1696EF194D1F184748EBB4491D4CEA61528F6DC3D8B613966 3B06CA65BEE6197AAF|
|0240C159AA20BAFF6F5C2B701BE0DF00DBF63B4C3BE9E727D 7A07DF10877A291440|
|C81518E150F02FF4514248D7843EBB5468932E22703522C88 A0259D2981E2C86C11|
|A315823066BC260ED186C028379C9220E0B4F7C89076BCE31 520B8CC145C6E871E0|
|04A381AA12A83212B7B8B1E69B8C698AB5E8FE5AD0582B704 DBDB458116D085D25E|
|DD02D779CE150CF1AA37F9D3168026719C3E71831324FEADB 96C4B3E86902A28C63|
|B4D48D6D5DDDBFB8AD94C3A5298B7183B457FBF67EE184BEA FC037E03BA3FF07F09|
|3719DF20774D5C05376DAF30C780EBC608CBD045E31B6E965 1BD25543F04AC32B0D|
|AF34BC86E1350CAF1DAA1AD14F7EA4854E92224E6367F493C A3CE0ACBD0F8147C06|
|3C6C436B0C378421B8DEBBB3E9EC49BEDDEFDCCE847879875 D7BE218AD471DDBC7B|
|F7AB120627F5FC49AAFAA29C2A50FF5FC7C760AD0BDF829F7 451C9BC92252527959|
|C52725A495EC98A928292EAA7DDEAC83ED5D77E2507941C54 92A0FEC4A6CAF40648|
|024A824A424AC24A224AA24AE24ADA956C29A9FE06415F093 A|
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Quote:Why would any self-respecting Regen have "major" end problems? QR + Stamina by 20, you know. Even if he skips Stamina, he'll have better end recovery than most other scrappers w/Stamina. Now, the +recharge is huge for Regen, but the +recovery will be a side-thought.Originally Posted by Pinkpup
That is why I would say a /kin, since the fire/reg scrapper is going to have major endurance problems in the 20s/30s. Slot speed boost with some endurance IOs, and you will be helping him alot more then some minor debuff. But then I'm assuming the scrapper is a new to coh.