firespray

/unsigned.

The intention behind the mission architect is for any character to use it as an alternate leveling path from 1-50. Anything that restricts the ability to do so is a bad idea. And yes, it's still a bad idea even if you think it will reduce farming.

If you're up for changing secondaries, going dark/dark can help as well. My first level 50 ever was a dark/dark tank, and dark consumption helps tremendously once you get it.

Other things that will help are:

Frankenslotting is your friend. Especially in Dark Regen. Ideally you want about 60% accuracy in it, and as close to the end redux and recharge ED caps as you can get. Slotting for healing is fine but only once you've reached those things. Frankenslot your attacks and toggles as much as you can for endurance reduction as well.

If you have the money, getting ahold of a miracle +recovery, numina's regen/recovery, and/or a performance shifter chance for endurance can all help a lot too.

Also consider using IOs for knockback protection rather than running acrobatics if you were doing that.

With 4 slots I'd go with 4 pieces of performance shifter, endmod, endmod/accuracy, endmod/recharge, and the chance for endurance proc. It's slightly less recovery enhancement than the ED cap, but the 2.5% recovery bonus from 4 pieces gives you a little bit of an edge (0.01 end/sec according to mid's, but every little bit helps).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I could be wrong about this, but I believe as of I15, all AVs and GMs (Might be just GMs, not sure) have a small chance to drop recipes from pool C/D, which is the taskforce/trial recipes.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's actually bosses and anything higher than Bosses

[/ QUOTE ]And AVs in particular are guaranteed to drop a pool A recipe (bronze roll) to one member of the team, in addition to the chance for pool C/D (gold roll)

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't be opposed to making it so that the AV dropped a pool A recipe to everyone on the team. Either that or increase the random drop chance for a pool C/D slightly (very slightly, maybe to 1/1000 instead of 1/5000).

[ QUOTE ]

Gimmickperforming is sort of par for the course with most Melee sets. I hear people [censored] me out for saying Super Strength has terrible AoE. The reasoning is always "footstomp is the best power evar1191" which makes me sad because that's the only freaking reason. But really, melee sets are all the freaking same thing except for like one or two shining glorious powers- Crowd Control, Parry, Divine Avalanche, Siphon Life, Rage, Footstomp, ET and Total Focus.. Apart from their little powers of epic beefiness, most melee sets go "Hit, Hit Harder, Hit More Harderer, Also Hit, Mez..." Dual Blades and Electrical Melee (and I guess Spines is weird enough) are at least *slightly* different overall, which is good and they're solid sets. But then we look at a Melee set without an I-rock-button to its name- Martial Arts, and we go "oh [censored] this is what most of the other melee sets would look like without their key powers, how [censored] is that!
Yeah, for melee, the one big gimmick is generally what sets the sets apart on the set. Set that in your mind or you'll feel the fury of Set as soon as the setting sun goes down.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to call you out on saying dark melee is gimmicky. I'm not really sure where that opinion comes from. It has one of the most well-rounded and diverse collections of powers in any melee set out there.

The first 2 powers make a great buzzsaw attack chain with very respectable DPS.

The damage type is rarely resisted.

Siphon life is not only a great attack, but it heals you when you use it.

Dark Consumption let's you get end. back faster.

Soul drain is a ridiculously good replacement for build-up.

Midnight Grasp is better than ever.

Sure, everyone who plays dark melee should take siphon life, but you can say that about half the set. That's hardly a gimmick.

I'd either go dark/ice or ice/ice. Ice melee has lots of good controls in it, which sounds like what you're looking for. Several powers are AoE as well.

I've been wanting to create a stone tank for quite awhile, and I'm finally ready to try it. I'm just not sure what I'm going play for a secondary. I'm considering /stone, /ice, and /fire at the moment. I'll consider other sets if you have a good reason for me to do so. The only set I don't want to play is superstrength, because I just did that on a brute.

So can anyone recommend a good combo, and explain a little about what makes it good?

[ QUOTE ]

Anyway, opinions can be "wrong." As an example there are quite a few people in prison who do not believe that they should even be in prison. In their opinion their actions were acceptable, society however has collectively decided that their opinions are "wrong."

[/ QUOTE ]

Barack Obama is more qualified to be the president than John McCain.

What's that you say? You disagree with me? Well, obviously you're wrong?

What's that? It's just a matter of opinion, so you can't be wrong?

Oh, but I have the majority on my side, and that means your opinion CAN be wrong.

/sarcasm

Yeah, sorry, doesn't work that way. An opinion is still an opinion regardless of how many people share it. An opinion cannot, by definition, be right OR wrong. If it could be proven conclusively right or wrong, it would no longer be an opinion.

Also, I'm not trying to make a political statement with the above, just using it to illustrate the fact that just because a majority holds an opinion doesn't mean the minority opinion is "wrong"

Another popular thread right now has been discussing what powersets are thought to be weaker than the others. One of the ones that's come up a lot is devices. Some people think it's fine the way it is, while others think it falls far behind the other blaster secondaries. Personally, I think that it has a lot of potential, and I like the fact that it plays very differently than many other sets, but I think it could use some work.

So this thread is meant to offer my suggestions for how it could be improved, and for other people to offer theirs as well. If you think devices is fine the way it is and doesn't need changed, I respect that opinion, but this thread's not for you. I really hope this doesn't turn into a does it or doesn't it need changed argument.

With that out of the way, my suggestions.

Web grenade: I'm not sure the tradeoff of no damage for some recharge speed debuff is worth it (especially since chillblain gets both). I'd like to see this turned into a mag 4 immobilize to help even it out with the other tier 1's.

Caltrops: don't think this needs anything done at all. A great power.

Taser: A mag 3 stun is nice, but the long recharge and lack of anything to stack it with makes it hard to stun bosses, which are often the things you need to stun the most. I'm not sure exactly what should be done for this. I think what I'd like to see most is for it to be increased to a mag 4 stun, with a short duration and about the same recharge. Maybe a base of 7.5 seconds mag 4 stun with a 20 sec recharge. So if you wanted to put the slots into it, you could perma-stun bosses, but it wouldn't be all that easy.

Targeting Drone: To help make up for the burst damage that devices lacks due to not having buildup, I'd add a small damage buff to targeting drone. Perhaps a 15-20 % buff.

Smoke Grenade: Fine just the way it is.

Cloaking Device: Fine just the way it is.

Trip Mine: Lower the cast time and the recharge time so it's a little more friendly to use on teams, and it'd be great. Maybe lower the duration as well so you can't stack any more due to the lower recharge.

Time Bomb: The biggest problem with this is that you can't control when it goes off. Find a way so that you could set it off when you wanted, and it would be great.

Gun Drone: Another easy fix. Just make the duration longer or make it permanent, and lower the cast time slightly, and it's a great power.

I realize that making all these changes would probably make the set overpowered, but choosing a few select ones would go a long way I think towards removing the perception that it's underpowered.

Looks like that attack chain gives about 144 DPS, not too shabby for a build that wasn't focusing on damage/recharge.

Endurance looks to be a problem though. I might need to drop focused accuracy for stamina.

[ QUOTE ]

If someone says; "The sky is green, but that's just my opinion." Or if they say; "Humans have 3 hearts and 2 brains, in my opinion." Or; "Gravity doesn't pull down, it pulls up. In my opinion." Guess what? That person is wrongity wrong wrong wroooooooooooooooong! Also if a person says; "I think that Defender Electrical Blast does more damage than Blaster Fire Blast. But that's my opinion." Am I not allowed to tell that person how wrong they are just because it's their opinion?

Opinions aren't facts, but opinions can be wrong.


[/ QUOTE ]

See, the thing is, those things aren't really opinions, they're just wrong facts, with you saying "it's my opinion" at the end.

"The sky is green" is not an opinion, because you can prove conclusively what color the sky actually is.

Now if you said "the sky is pretty", that would be an opinion, and that really can't be wrong. Someone could disagree with you, and say that they sky is, in fact, not pretty. But that would just be THEIR opinion, not a concrete fact that refutes your statement.

So sure, you can say something is an opinion when it's not, and then you can be wrong, but when you truly offer an opinion about something, it isn't possible to be wrong.

[ QUOTE ]
If the devs were ever to raise the base defence of SR toggles in order to make them readily better out of the box, in counterpart i would not mind if they were putting a hard cap of 35% defence in order that IOed and buffed SR cant softcap and trivialize so much of the game content.

Who's with me?!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

If they gutted my billion and a half fire/sr build that way I'd quit this game in a heartbeat.

can someone remind me the formula for calculating arcanatime.

/unsigned.

The intention behind the mission architect is for any character to use it as an alternate leveling path from 1-50. Anything that restricts the ability to do so is a bad idea. And yes, it's still a bad idea even if you think it will reduce farming.

Here's the build I ended up coming up with. I'm aiming for defense first, then recharge, with a little regen thrown in where I can. Any improvements you can think of without resorting to purples?

Edit: Oh, and does anyone know what kind of attack chain I'll be able to run with this build?

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Midnight Haze: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Punch <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (3) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (3) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge[*] (25) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (37) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 1: High Pain Tolerance <ul type="square">[*] (A) Healing IO[*] (5) Healing IO[*] (5) Healing IO[*] (46) Reactive Armor - Resistance[*] (46) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance[*] (46) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge[/list]Level 2: Smite <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (7) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (7) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge[*] (15) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (34) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 4: Mind Over Body <ul type="square">[*] (A) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance[*] (9) Aegis - Resistance[*] (9) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge[*] (36) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge[/list]Level 6: Shadow Maul <ul type="square">[*] (A) Obliteration - Damage[*] (13) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (13) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge[*] (25) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge[/list]Level 8: Siphon Life <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (11) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (11) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge[*] (15) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (34) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage[*] (40) Healing IO[/list]Level 10: Indomitable Will <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance[*] (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[*] (39) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[/list]Level 12: Hasten <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (40) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (43) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 14: Super Speed <ul type="square">[*] (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range[*] (31) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance[*] (40) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)[/list]Level 16: Rise to the Challenge <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO[*] (17) Healing IO[*] (17) Healing IO[*] (31) Miracle - +Recovery[/list]Level 18: Fast Healing <ul type="square">[*] (A) Healing IO[*] (19) Numina's Convalescence - Heal[*] (19) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery[/list]Level 20: Quick Recovery <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO[*] (21) Endurance Modification IO[*] (21) Endurance Modification IO[/list]Level 22: Dark Consumption <ul type="square">[*] (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge[*] (23) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge[*] (23) Efficacy Adaptor - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (31) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod[*] (37) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy[*] (43) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance[/list]Level 24: Swift <ul type="square">[*] (A) Run Speed IO[/list]Level 26: Soul Drain <ul type="square">[*] (A) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (27) Accuracy IO[*] (27) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (37) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 28: Heightened Senses <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance[*] (29) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[*] (29) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[/list]Level 30: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration[*] (39) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance[*] (43) Numina's Convalescence - Heal[/list]Level 32: Midnight Grasp <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge[*] (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (36) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 35: Boxing <ul type="square">[*] (A) Accuracy IO[/list]Level 38: Strength of Will <ul type="square">[*] (A) Resist Damage IO[*] (39) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%[/list]Level 41: Tough <ul type="square">[*] (A) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance[*] (42) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge[*] (42) Reactive Armor - Resistance[*] (42) Reactive Armor - Resistance/Recharge[/list]Level 44: Focused Accuracy <ul type="square">[*] (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff[*] (45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge[*] (45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance[*] (45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance[*] (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance[*] (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up[/list]Level 47: Weave <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance[*] (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge[*] (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[*] (48) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[/list]Level 49: Combat Jumping <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[*] (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Critical Hit
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]8% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]8% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]8% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]8% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]8% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]8% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]8% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]8% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]20.5% Defense(Smashing)[*]20.5% Defense(Lethal)[*]8.94% Defense(Fire)[*]8.94% Defense(Cold)[*]8.31% Defense(Energy)[*]8.31% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]13.6% Defense(Melee)[*]9.88% Defense(Ranged)[*]10.2% Defense(AoE)[*]40% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]18% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]165.7 HP (12.4%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 13.2%[*]MezResist(Stun) 2.2%[*]4% (0.07 End/sec) Recovery[*]74% (4.14 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]10% RunSpeed[*]2.5% XPDebtProtection[/list]


<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Underperforming means that if played with the same degree of skill, that set is less powerful than other sets for the same AT,

[/ QUOTE ]

That is not how the Devs define underperformance.


[/ QUOTE ]

If you're such an expert, then how exactly do the devs define underperformance?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not an expert, but I have been paying attention for the last 4 years. Castle has seemed to datamine underperformance/overperformance based PRIMARILY, but not exclusively, on rates of Inf and XP gain over time, solo and teamed. Invuln was shown to be underperforming on THAT basis, as was War Mace, Assault Rifle and several other sets recently.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure how this is different than what I suggested. If a set is not gaining xp/inf as fast as it should, it's because either A, it can't kill enemies as quickly, or B, dies more. That's pretty much the definition of "Less Powerful". Now maybe they don't directly compare sets to each other, invulnerability vs. willpower for example. Maybe there's some inf/xp per hour metric that all sets are compared to, but as far as we're concerned they give the same result. If player perception is that powerset F is underperforming when compared to powersets A through E, then it's probably falling behind in the metric that they use to compare them as well. And it's easier to believe that the devs need to correct powerset F, than the other 5.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not speaking about 'netbooks', I mean actual notebooks.

Talking with a few of the Best Buy guys, they told me that many on the entry level (at that time) laptops were decent for some gaming but there were a few games (including CoX) that weren't friendly to the integrated graphics card setup. The laptops that they suggested for gaming (at that time) were over $1K brand new.

My 2 year old $700 DuoCore Gateway does great with Sony Vegas and other vid/audio editing software but couldn't handle any gaming I put into it.

And from the chatter I used to see floating around, I wasn't the only one having these problems.

Granted, my system may be akin to one of the $600 models now available but it definitely isn't one of those $300 netbooks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, there's the difference, my wife's laptop has a real graphics card.

Actually I can play somewhat on my netbook (Asus 1000HA). The small screen resolution actually causes me more problems than the processor or the lack of a video card does.

[ QUOTE ]

Laptops aren't really a viable option unless you're shelling out $1500 or more.


[/ QUOTE ]

This isn't really true. My wife plays on a year-and-a-half old dell that she paid about $700 for and does just fine. She's not on minimum graphics settings either (somewhere in the middle).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Underperforming means that if played with the same degree of skill, that set is less powerful than other sets for the same AT,

[/ QUOTE ]

That is not how the Devs define underperformance.


[/ QUOTE ]

If you're such an expert, then how exactly do the devs define underperformance?

[ QUOTE ]

Also, QR: Taser can be stacked on a boss just by slotting it, you don't need additional stun powers.

Almost every set and power mentioned in this thread is NOT underperforming when used properly. L2P people.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure, you can stack taser with itself, but it takes about 10 seconds to do so, A boss can put the hurt on you pretty bad in 10 seconds.

Just because player skill can make a set playable doesn't mean that set isn't underperforming. Fortunately for us, we don't have ANY sets that are unplayable in this game. Underperforming means that if played with the same degree of skill, that set is less powerful than other sets for the same AT, and for a lot of the sets mentioned here, that's true.

I was working on a build for my dark/WP scrapper a couple days ago, and I noticed something, I couldn't find any big, easy to get, energy/negative defense bonuses.

For example, 4 pieces of kinetic combat is 3.75% smashing/lethal.
3 pieces of aegis gives 3.13% fire/cold.

Is there any set that gives similar levels of energy/negative for only 3 or 4 pieces?

Send in a petition about it I guess, but since them getting in was probably a bug in the first place, they may not do anything for you. You may just need to remove them all and invite them all again.

Definitely decided to go with DM/WP. I am already taking swift and health, but I still think I'd rather have dark consumption than stamina. My reasoning is that over time, they might be roughly the same (I've not run the numbers), but dark consumption can get me a lot of endurance quickly, and stamina can't. If I get hit with something that kills my recovery rate, or a sapper gets ahold of me, dark consumption can get my endurance back to full, and stamina can't. It seems to me like overall having 1 power to boost recovery, and 1 that give you end back is a better, more versatile combo than just 2 powers that boost recovery. I suppose I could just take QR, Stamina, Dark Consumption, and Conserve Power, then laugh at the whole concept of endurance.

No, the ability to set mission levels was so that you could restrict where you couldn't before, not to force spawns to spawn outside their normal levels. For example, if you created a mission with only custom enemies, before I15, you couldn't restrict it to level 40+, now you can.