junky

According to Mids, AAO is 10% buff for the first, 5.5% for each additional up to 10 total. So with 7 mobs around you + 80% from Rage you're looking at 128.5% damage buff. My Shield/SS build in Mids has lvl40 IOs with a full set of Obliteration in each of Shield Charge and Foot Stomp. They show as having a combined damage of 685. With double Rage (my build has Hasten) its 842.2.

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Forgot those numbers include the proc and +damage from other set bonuses. Sans the set bonuses and the proc's average damage its 634.6 for single Rage, and 791.9 for double.

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I have a question kinda related to the topic at hand: Wouldn't the -def from Rage crashes be problematic for a Shield/SS Tank?

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Yeah, Rage crash sucks (though much less than it used to). Not sure why it would be particularly problematic for a Shield tank. It sucks just fine on my Invunlerability/Super Strength, but I suppose I do have more resistance to back up my defense.

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Thats more or less what I was thinking. It wouldn't be a rough as say a SS/SR Brute (assuming the -def from Rage crash is unresistable), but even if softcapped I imagined having your defenses cut in half for 10 seconds in the middle of a crowd would be a problem even with 35-40% S/L, 20-25% Elements resist, and no Dull Pain/Healing Flames/etc (assuming Tough and Tanker numbers).

Sounds like its not as big a deal as I imagined though. Reason I ask is my WM/Shield Brute is 45 and will be 50 soon. I enjoy Shield Charge so much I wanted to do it again. I've been debating between a Fire/Shield Scrapper or a Shield/* Tank. I'd like to go the Tank route since I have 3 Scrappers at 50 already, and my highest Tank is....4. The lower damage bothers me a bit Tankerside but SS would make up for some of that if the Rage crash is manageable.


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Note: The def debuff on Rage is set to not self stack, so if you activate Rage before or during the crash, the debuff will be eliminated. (The damage and endurance crashes are not prevented in this fashion.)

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Ahh, I did not know that. Well that certainly makes things much easier then. Thanks for the info.

I have a question kinda related to the topic at hand: Wouldn't the -def from Rage crashes be problematic for a Shield/SS Tank?

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/macro human "powexec_toggle_off bright nova$$powexec_toggle_off white dwarf$$powexec_name shining shield".


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That looks right to me. Try it as a bind (/bind <key> "powex....) and see if that works, though it shouldn't make a difference.

I went with +Recharge, +EndMod, +Heal in that order. I solo'd often enough on my way up to 50 that I wanted Stygian to be back up quickly if I only had one mob to use it on. However, in retrospect the +recharge isn't really necessary as I had Hasten and later added quite a bit of +Recharge set bonuses. Since you just got it, I would slot for EndMod and End Redux, then some Healing depending on how many slots you're putting into it. Frankenslotting with IO's would be your best bet.

An End Mod IO, EndMod/Endredux, Heal/Endredux would work pretty well, though the only EndMod/EndRedux IO is an Efficacy Adaptor that is rare and rather expensive last time I looked.

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Which one was that?

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The Gladiators armour TP protection/Def


I think some Panacea +regen+recovery have come close to the billion mark as well

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A month or so ago I saw the Panacea go for 1.038 billion. I just kinda stared at it for a while in disbelief. Only billion inf IO I'd seen until the screenie up above.

Then an SG mate bought one a couple weeks ago for 250 million or so. Impatience is costly.

My IO'd (with several +HP and +Regen bonuses) DB/WP Brute is at 42 and some change.

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especially since the +regen of the Regen Tissue and Numina procs is increased by the +heal enhancement in the power itself

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Say wha? This is actually true? I saw that Mids was adjusting the proc numbers on my Claws/Regen but I thought it was an error, and went into the database to make the Uniques unenhanceable. I thought all procs were static bonuses...

Definitely +Recharge. I also slotted mine with an eye for recovery bonuses for when its not feasible to drop out of a form for Stygian Circle (mainly when tanking in Dwarf).

I noticed the abandoned lab in St. Martial for the first time the other day. And its got a bloody map marker! Nothing fancy, just a warehouse with some portable invention tables. I had just never noticed it before and happened to be scrolling over my map when I saw it.

I had a similar situation come up. Assuming you have a base in which you can safely store it (and not worry about SG mates pilfering it) I would save it for another character. I can understand the logic of respecing out of Fitness, but I wouldn't want to give up Health on my Regen. Stamina is then only another power away.

Unless you really, really need the cash I'd save it. Thats what I did and my soon to be made Fire/Shield scrapper will be thankful.

I dropped Elude on my MA/SR after a respec and hitting the softcap. Just wasn't needed. I also have Air Superiority and certainly would not give it up to get Elude back.

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SR gets my vote.

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I have claws/regen at 50 that is/was fun as hell, but I still vote SR.

My favorite/least favorite pretty much depends on what character I'm playing at the moment. Tsoo Sorcs are a royal pain in the rear for just about everybody - but my Mind Dom loves them because of his confuse. Actually, just about all the really annoying mobs people hate are his favorites...

Generally speaking though, I have a soft spot for Malta as a group and Gunslingers in particular. Gunslingers look good, have dual pistols, and can actually be a threat. Malta as a whole are one of the only groups that provide a challenge regardless of what AT you're on.

Knives of Atemis on the other hand - don't [censored] get me started on those [censored] [censored]. Oh sure, the hotness factor of sword wielding ninja babes in skin tight outfits gets my motor running, but I [censored] hate caltrops. Yes I could use fly or a jet pack, thats not the point.

Nerva Spectral Demons I'm no fan of either unless I'm on a mezzing class or have a reliable mezz power. Especially in numbers, having your to-hit floored sucks. Plus I've been playing a lot of smashing/lethal characters lately.

You can use geometry to contain the scatter. Wormhole them into any kind of corner from walls, crates, etc. The only issue with this is it may mean moving the spawn from where the melee types are tearing into it, which can be an annoyance to some people (god forbid they have to move 15 ft to continue the beatings). If you have hover you can also Wormhole them straight down which reduces (but does not eliminate) the scatter.

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Level 20: Black Dwarf Mire -- Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(27), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(31), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)

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This is what I went with for mine. The set bonuses are nothing to write home about, but for a very important, staple power such as Dwarf Mire I'm more concerned with slotting % than set bonuses. Plus this was dirt cheap. This slotting gives me 43% Acc, 96% Dmg, 62% End Redux, 89% Rech using level 40 IO's.

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Fire probably made out the worst, relatively speaking. DPE went down relative to the old version, and AoE damage went down compared to before while in Domination. Not that bad really but if you had a /Fire perma-Dom you might be wishing for the old version back.

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This definitely was not the case for me. I only ran a couple missions on test with my perma Fire/Fire, but with Fiery Embrace and Soul Drain I was laying waste to things significantly faster than before. He was pee-in-his-pants happy with the changes. Endurance use was noticeably higher, but it was non-existant before so it still isn't an issue. Any sort of IO'd build is going to have decent end redux slotting built into the attacks, and if you're perma then you get your end refilled every 80-90 seconds.

YMMV of course.

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Depends on what you want to do with the build.

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This is a key factor. Both my TriForm PB and WS have the Fitness pool, and both spend a "fair" amount of time in Human form. If you plan on focusing the majority of your time and slots into the forms, using human for the heals and buffs, I think you could easily skip Stamina. My PB has both the melee attacks and likes to scrap it out in human form on occasion, so I felt Stamina was necessary (though it only has the base slot). You certainly don't need to pick it up right at 20, late 20's or 30's is probably more "normal" for Khelds than not.

Something else to consider: Kheldians are notoriously slot starved and the Fitness pool provides 3-4 good, solid powers that require no slots.

We had a thread about it a couple months ago (can't seem to find it now, might have been purged), and I think the general consensus was no for either one.

I just wish there was a way to skip the 13-22 levels. 1-12 I enjoy as you're leveling up quickly, lots of new powers fast, getting used to a (usually) new powerset, digging on a new cool costume. By the time the teens roll around though, damage scaling starts kicking in for non-damage primary types, endurance becomes a serious issue, and leveling progression slows down quite noticeably. 22 with SO/IO's and Stamina picks it back up again for me.

Its not really that bad though. And despite the recent protestations of the Devs over AE farming, I really don't think they would have a problem with people who want to farm their way up to 22ish to avoid the low level slog and then continue "normal" progression after that. Its the 1-50 in five hours that they take issue with. At least thats what I'm telling myself .

Point being, i14 brough new and easier ways to avoid the low levels if you find them tedious. AE farms are definitely boring as hell, but 2-3 hours of boring as hell is better than 15-20 hours of tedious as hell.

Aren't Stalker's melee damage modifier 0.9 versus 1.125 for Scrappers? Not sure if that evens it out in the end, but in my mind when Scrappers crit it means something. Stalker's crits are "Ooooh, you kicked me in the shins...twice."

I think I have a couple slots in my lvl41 power on both my PB and WS, but 44, 47, and 49 all are slotless and unused for the most part. Wouldn't make any difference if we had some sort of Ancillary pool either, still wouldn't have the slots to spare (unless of course the powers were just that good).

Though with a couple exceptions, most of the Ancillary/Patron pools on my other characters only have one well slotted power with a couple devoted to another. So its not really that much of a difference.

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Tint the forms...?!!!!! Here's hoping!

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I had been so so about the color changing thing. Lots of people want it, thats cool, I wasn't planning on messing with it much though. But if we can color customize the forms (which hadn't even occured to me)? Ok now I'm excited.

I want a deep dark blue PB and a dark red WS.

I don't know of a single macro that can do all three at once, but you can squeeze it into two:

/macro TP "powexecname Black Dwarf Step"
/macro Mire "powexectoggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexecname Sunless Mire"

First one is just a standard power bind for the teleport, second one drops out of Dwarf and activates the mire.

Reactivating Dwarf and firing off Dwarf Mire will also have to be two different macros as well, since you can only activate a single power in a bind. Although, now that I think about it, this might work:

/macro Dwarf "powexectoggleon Black Dwarf$$powexecauto Black Dwarf Mire"

That kicks Dwarf back on and sets the Dwarf Mire to auto, which should then fire as soon as the form change is complete. Course its then stuck on auto and you'll have to ctrl and left click on the power icon to take it off auto.

If this is going to be a duo more than general teaming, I would say go for Fire/ as well. Plenty of overlapping control (alternating flashfires every spawn), and once you both get to 32, six imps can bring a world of hurt to whatever you're against.

Plant and Earth would be two more excellent choices.