macskull

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by GATE-keeper View Post
    OK, so sometime in the future, your ex IRRETRIEVABLY deletes all of your existing toons.

    Yes, even The Six Billion Inf Man, your soft-capped, purpled-out, perma-PA Ill/Rad.

    And the global economy collapses. Again. And you can no longer afford the $49.99 a month it costs to play this game.

    You've only got two slots. What would they be?

    For me, I'd remake my main - an Inv/SS Tank - although I might remake him as an SS/Inv Brute.

    My second would probably be a Rad/Sonic Fender.
    Joke's on you, I don't have an ex!
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zahyl View Post
    It has a desirable effect on players that spam greens consecutively
    Luckily, you can only hold a limited number of inspirations before you need to leave the zone to refill your tray. If you're constantly leaving to buy greens you aren't contributing to the PvP going on and you're missing changes at PvP IO drops.

    Quote:
    But how much damage should a spike target be allowed to survive with emp heals?
    An infinite amount, provided the target is good at evading and the Emp is spot-on with timing their heals. If you can't either quickly outdamage the Emp's heals, or switch off and bring down the Emp first, you don't deserve the kill. It's that simple. Playing with heal decay off means at least some level of skill and timing is required to get kills instead of "spam attacks until my target can't heal anymore."

    Quote:
    Without HD it's extremely difficult to kill your spike target if the enemy emp is focused on him.
    That's the point. That's how it should be. Part of PvPing intelligently is prioritizing your targets, and that almost always means eliminating the support first.
  3. Sonic Attacks is about the only time I'd go with a Defender over a Corruptor.
  4. Well, you're taking Blaze instead of Soul or Leviathan, for one... You've only got one slot in BU (!?) and I really am not sure about Burnout.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Daemodand View Post
    What Stalkers are missing is damage not Hit Points.
    They have damage, just the wrong kind for 99% of the game.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by peterpeter View Post
    Off market I've never seen one sell below 2.5 billion. In market I've had a bid in at 2 billion for months and never bought one. I wonder if that bid is still outstanding? I'll have to log that character in and check. Haven't done that lately.
    Last two I've sold have been 2.25 and 2.3 billion, but that was a long time ago (before the recent price spike, I guess).
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Microcosm View Post
    PB's just got a sizable boost, which wouldn't have happened if the players just rolled over.
    The issue with any Stalker changes is simple: the archetype's not designed for the style of play this game rewards most - Stalkers are a burst single-target archetype in a game which, for the most part, rewards sustained AoE damage. Nothing short of a very large-scale reworking of how the AT plays would solve that problem.

    EDIT: The HP problem could be solved, however, by increasing max HP from scale 1 (1606.4) to scale 1.25 (2008). Not as much max HP as Scrappers, but still some wiggle room for those with +HP buffs.
  8. macskull

    Burn Questions

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psychic Guardian View Post
    Since they no longer run immediately, that means it's damage is much more effective because they won't be leaving it's range.
    I'm going to contest this by saying if you had some way to mitigate the afraid effect of old Burn (AoE immob or knockdown) the old Burn was miles ahead of the new Burn in terms of damage.
  9. I'm seeing just north of 46% defense on that build, which is already above softcap. Not sure where else you could steal slots to squeeze a bit more, though.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Haetron View Post
    Never mind the fact that the source of the problem wasn't ET, it was how the stalker functioned in PVP, which was later changed slightly as well. I dunno the specifics on that.
    The average PvP Stalker these days acts as a Blaster with hide, spamming sharks and hoping for a kill because they don't know how to AS even though it's really easy with the mez changes and travel suppression. That combined with diminishing returns on damage and free global resistance for squishies mean a solo stalker is very rarely a threat.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheBruteSquad View Post
    That said, if we set the animation time threshold for corpse punching to 2.5 seconds or higher we find:
    - battle axe has 2 - whirling axe, cleave
    - claws has 2 - spin, eviscerate
    - dark melee has 1 - shadow maul
    - dual blades has 1 - thousand cuts
    - electric melee has 2 - thunderstrike, lightning rod
    - energy melee has 3 - whirling hands, energy transfer, total focus
    - fire melee has 2 - breath of fire, fire sword circle
    - kinetic melee has 2 - burst, concentrated strike (which doesn't have people saying 'skip it. You'll only punch corpses with it.')
    - stone melee has 2 - throw boulder, tremor
    - super strength has 1 - hurl
    - war mace has 1 - whirling mace
    - broad sword has 1 - whirling sword
    - katana has 0 (the only set that has no animation time higher than 2 seconds)
    - spines has 0 (only put here because I think that's kind of interesting as it also has a reputation for slowness)

    What sets EM up as the slowest set is that most of those other slow powers don't get worked into attack chains (concentrated strike being a glaring exception, with cleave and thunderstrike being honorable mentions).
    Energy Melee powers notwithstanding, every power on that list except Concentrated Strike is either an AoE or a ranged attack, and Concentrated Strike doesn't have a "skip this!" vibe because it does something useful - in the case of Scrappers and Stalkers, it'll instantly recharge Power Siphon or Build Up when it crits (and it also doesn't do self-damage).

    At least with the other powers on that list you're probably going to hit multiple targets which makes using the power worthwhile, or in the case of ranged attacks it's a great way to tag a runner without having to chase it. That leaves Energy Melee as the only melee set with two melee single-target attacks with such long animations, which wouldn't be such an issue if the rest of the set had anything to offer. Old EM was good at one thing, and one thing only - really high burst damage. New EM doesn't do that, and didn't get anything back to compensate for the loss of that burst ability.
  12. what the **** happened here
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kioshi View Post
    It was between i12 and i13, I had a guide for Stalker's EM called 'EM Guide for i12) and I remember editing the changes for Barrage, I think it was a bit before i13 actually because I put the changes but later I stopped caring about it because I had no idea how to edit the EM/Nin pvp build I'd posted (need for 900 kb IOs and etc) and if the pvp stuff I'd put in were still valid.

    Oh and the change to TF was to everyone, which is sad since Seismic Smash animates in 1.67s (I think) an has a mag 4 hold.
    There was another small set of changes after the TF/ET change which I think was just increasing the damage of Barrage (so now it deals more damage than Energy Punch). Just checked the Wiki, though, and you're right - patch was in July 2008, so a few months after I12 went live. Thought it was earlier than that...

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheProtector View Post
    Performance issues aside

    Energy Transfer is still one of the coolest moves in the game. Gigantic orange numbers are always pleasing to see.
    Seems like more often than not you're staring at a corpse instead of gigantic orange numbers, though. Kind of loses some effect when your target dies before your power goes off.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by _Neo_ View Post
    It looks like pvp hasn't really changed all too much, although i do hear that ice blast and nrg melee is no longer considered for pvp anymore is this true and what was nerfed?
    Everything's been nerfed, really. Basically everything is crappy now, just some stuff is less crappy than the other stuff. Ice Blast and Energy Melee are bad now for two separate reasons:

    * Ice Blast's slows are negligible thanks to DR and movement slows being gutted, and damage is now based on activation time so Ice got hosed badly (BIB does about as much damage as Ice Blast, but has a longer recharge time, shorter range, and higher endurance cost).

    * Energy Melee sucks now because the animation time on ET got increased from 1 second to 2.67 seconds (this was around I11 so it's been this way a while). The mez changes mean you can't really expect to stun anyone to run them out of breakfrees or whatever, and global resists mean energy damage isn't particularly special.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kyriani View Post
    The typical melee status protection that provides knockback protection usually gives about 10 points. So if you have a set that provides no knockback and want equivalent then you'll likely go for three of the 4pt -KB IO's or stack an equivalent number in set bonuses if possible.
    Melee in-set knockback protection (with the exception of Grounded from Elec Armor) also has 10,000% knockback resistance, which essentially turns that knockback into mag zero before the protection's even applied. As an example, Recluse's Spider Smash power on the STF will KB my Defender, who has 26 points of protection slotted, but it won't touch pretty much any melee with in-set KB protection.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord View Post
    I personally always slot for 12 points of knockback protection. While 4 points will protect you from 80% of the knockback in the game, 12 points will protect you from knockback from Rikti pylons and Hamidon, among others.
    I think Hami's KB is mag 13, which isn't quite covered by 3 IOs, but I may be mistaken.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by shaggy5 View Post
    I appreciate the input. I know the descriptions say things like -resist and whatnot, but never see much of this in practice. Just the other day I was on my /sonic and I was testing it. My power would hit and the next hit with the same power produced the same numbers. I did this throughout the trial and never saw any change in numbers. Is there something I am not recognizing or doing wrong?
    You're doing something wrong. Debuffs on Defender attacks are quite potent and you're not playing your character to its full potential unless you're using your primary and your secondary.

    Regarding Blaster secondaries, that's a bit trickier. They've all got a similar power layout (with the exception of Devices and Energy) so it's a matter of what fits your playstyle and synergizes best with your primary. For example, Devices is a poor pairing with AR but Energy is one of the best mostly due to Boost Range's effects on AR's cones.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Deacon_NA View Post
    The question is about a 2nd box, not what character would be most effective to team with this brute. Blast set (or control) would almost be irrelevant.
    All you need to do is fire off SB every 90 seconds and occasionally switch back to the Fire/Kin for less than a second to fire off FS when it drops. I used to do this, and it's not at all difficult, complicated, or slow.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Liz Bathory View Post
    And that includes a fire farm where you make enemies doing the damage you are good against.
    How is this any different than running dev-created content against mobs that deal damage you're strong against (i.e. /Fire running Demons)?
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shocklust View Post
    In fact, whirling hands is better to use in a team situation.
    And Whirling Hands is a pretty crappy power as far as melee PBAoEs go, so that's another testament to how screwed up this set now is.
  21. If you already have a Regen Scrapper there's absolutely no reason to roll a Regen Brute.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Titano_EU View Post
    In order to keep you happy, i will seriously try snipe blaster. When it gets on my nerves, or i can´t handle it, i will switch it to something else. Even if my bonuses don´t fill 6 to 9 pages in an character description.
    When building a good build, your enhancement slotting matters almost as much as your power picks. Lots of PvP builds take powers you never actually use to hold special IOs or for set bonuses - this is nothing new.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Emo_Bitter View Post
    Good thing we dropped you!

    lmao, jk!

    <3

    P.S. What are the spec's on your desktop?
    C2D OC'd to 3.5GHz, Radeon HD 5770, 8 gigs RAM, SSD boot drive, Win7 Pro x64, all that jazz. It's about 3 years old but it's still a pretty solid machine.