tarrantm
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Lol it's a Brute, acc, end red and recharge is pretty much all the slotting it needs, in that order. But what didn't help was that my /Dark started off with Stone/. No amount of end slotting ever makes that get better until slotting 2 purple IOs in every power I can for +recov.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
I'm going to hazard a guess that you're the kind of guy who doesn't slot endurance reduction in his attacks. -
Quote:The problem with that whole setup is that a red + Aim + 2 AOEs from the Blaster and all you're left with of the group is a boss at about half health. Energy/ Blasters may be the exception. Scrappers are just a meat shield at that point unless you have the burst damage of Shield Charge or Lightning Rod.Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
Eh, this is getting further and further off topic, but it all goes back to how I learned to play the game. I spent most of my time as a duo on my Kat/SR Scrapper with an Energy/Energy Blaster. She would focus on the big baddies with her knockback attacks while I kept the lesser critters from getting too close to her. So on teams, I let the big damage dealers go after bosses, while I sweep through the lieutenants and any minions that might make things difficult (like Cimeroran Surgeons) before turning my attention to the boss as well. I've found that this makes things go a lot faster for teams in general and have been complemented for it more than a few times.
This extends to AVs as well, such as on the Katie Hannon or Statesman TF; I'll take out bosses while the rest of the team is focused on the AV and work my way down through the minions. It's about doing what benefits the group the most.
Of course, when playing solo, I hit the toughest dude in the group first and work my way down the chain, since that's what makes the most sense when you have no backup.
Coming back to the Stalker, the issue is that unless Stalker single target kill speed measured in time to dispatch 10 mobs (picking 10 because that's the usual melee AOE limit) exceeds AOE Scrapper kill speed of 10 mobs, there will be a glaring discrepancy between the offensive output of the two ATs while preserving the even bigger defensive disparity. One of the cooler ideas to increase single target kill speed without messing wit h the damage multipliers I read once was to guarantee a critical on any target that is not aggroed on the Stalker.
And should the offensive disparity be actually addressed, it still does not address the inherent squishiness of the Stalker resist sets, which when compared to something like softcapped ninjitsu or SR, really do underperform and I faceplant on them as often as I see Blasters do so. The low hitpoints of Stalkers really isn't an issue with DEF sets because when you get softcapped and aren't being hit, hitpoints are immaterial. With RES sets however, you're getting hit all the time and the low hitpoints are painfully obvious all the time. I don't know what the solution is, maybe have Hide add 20% extra resist all, or half the cost of the self-heal and half the recharge on it or a mix of the two, but either way the resist sets need fixing for Stalkers. -
Quote:I have no idea where you're pulling ur defensive inferiority complex from. I was talking about Brutes in comparison to Dech's Tanker (which, impressively, according to him, can solo a 4/8 Malta including Zeus', something I doubt my /Dark Brute could do no matter the IO costs).Originally Posted by Seldom
Wait, what? If it can't solo a zeus, do 4/8, and/or has trouble with mu it's broken? Sorry dude, wrong. My aforementioned brute has soloed four or so AV's (using candy, though) and has no io defense. The guy bought a pair of impervium armors for his armors to asuage the endurance costs because the set has some nice +recovery, and his stuns the same for the +recovery bonuses, but he's cost me on the whole no more than25million. (Half of that cost being a numina unique I recently bought.)
And if u read my post, that's exactly what I claimed, that a /Dark Brute with enough INF spent is right up there with the best high end sets.Quote:ANYTHING you want to do zeus, solo 4/8, and have no problem with mu will cost you big. ...And sorry, at that point dark's not far behind many other sets with the same investment.
It's just at the lower end of investment that we seem to disagree, and I am still convinced that at SO performance levels, /Fire and /Elec outperforms /Dark due to the lack of an End bar refill power in the set. -
Quote:Meh, u play a tougher AT that's easier to softcap plus you're on blueside where everything is easier including cheaper IOs. Did u actually have the DPS to take out a Zeus on your own btw?Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Fix'd.
Hyperbole is bad, mmmkay?
I only spent 300 million in IOs on mine. Granted, it's a tank, but a brute should have an easier time taking care of +4/x8 Malta than I did.
In a race for sheer survival, "tricked out" DA beats Shields with ease, and it stands toe to toe with Willpower until the WP sees endurance drain. Then again, it should beat Shields, because Shields is the offensive set.
There'd be no way even a fully IOed out /Dark Brute can stand against 4/8 Arachnos or Longbow without a group behind him. Even the much vaunted endurance drain resist of Dark does nothing against -recov. If you actually want to test how much tougher Mu -recov is compared to Malta Sappers, run the arc that involves taking down Sirocco in the Mu fest. With the stacked -recov, /Dark would run itself dry before u hit 50% Fury. -
Quote:/facepalmOriginally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
And anyway, the 5% damage nerf I suggested for Stalker AoE attacks still puts them far above the damage those same attacks do in the hands of Tankers.
How anyone gets to the realm of comparing any Stalker damage to that of Tankers is beyond me. -
Until you sink IOs in it, it's that bad. At the SO level, I think I get better performance out of /Fire. After a couple billion in IOs, it's probably just under an equivalently tricked out Willpower and Shield.
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Definitely Willpower. It just keeps getting better the more resources you throw at it. Especially if you play redside with the tougher mobs. On the plus side though, a well built one only needs a Therm and a small orange and purple to tank tough content.
Stone gives you Granite + a Kin and you're pretty much all set until you hit psi and need to dig up a few Dark corrs to cover that hole.
Dark is decent in increasing power with IOs and having lots of bases covered, but unlike all the other regen or resistance armor sets, it's lacking an endurance recovery power, so it's got a huge hole that IOs can't really fill even with a ToE in Dark Regen. Although adding a Kin usually solves this, the horrible Energy resists for the 3rd most common damage type in game makes this a better option for a Tanker than a Brute.
Shield is a better option than Invul IMO because of the positional defense covering for part of the Psi hole and better DDR. Again, a bigger issue redside than blueside due to the preponderance of Arachnos and Longbow. -
yep
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Actually, Thugs primary mitigation is Maneuvers (8% def) from the Enforcers. Stack that on top of the defense from Shadow Fall (5%), the -ToHit debuffs from Darkest Night(-15% after minimal slotting) and Fearsome Stare (-11% with no slotting), Maneuvers on the MM (3.5%), 2 +petdef IOs (10%) and you have 26% def to pets and -26% tohit debuffs (against even levels). That's not even factoring in fluffy's tohit debuffs. Trust me, I have a Thugs/Dark/Mace MM, you don't need knockback for mitigation with a Thugs/Dark around. Your MM partner will be steamrolling things in no time.
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The good news is that Roots has like mag -100 knockback, covers a 30ft radius and hits 16 mobs. And since spamming Roots is one of your more effective AOE damage attacks, there will be no knockback happening.
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Doms play like a blapper with controls to provide mitigation and your level 41 patron powers to enhance it. I always play mine in melee but the best thing for you to do would be to get out there and experiment to see how you want to make the AT work for you.
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For Plant you can skip Entangle, Spore Burst, Spirit Tree and even Fly Trap. The only reason I'd take any of them is for IO muling. Spore Burst is great for slotting Fortunate Hypnosis since it's the cheapest purple set out there. Fly Trap is good for a getting 6.25 recharge out of 4 slots if u don't have 5x 6.25 recharges already. Entangle is good for slotting a full Enfeebled Operation if you're going for S/L defense capping. I can't find a redeeming quality to Spirit Tree.
For Thorny, other than for Fling Thorns and Thorn Burst (which you want for AOE goodness, although if you're going to be flying out of melee range, Thorn Burst would be pointless), take ur pick of the rest to come up with a single target attack chain. I usually avoid slotting more than 1 additional slot in Thorny Darts (for 2 Undermined Defenses IOs for the 2% damage buff). When you said you're taking up Flight, did u just mean as a travel power or will you be using Hover for your combat maneuvering? Do you want to stay out of melee range then? In which case you will have to forgo the melee attacks and just pick up the ranged ones. You won't be getting optimal performance, but that's what you sacrifice for RP. -
Thorntrops is awesome! I just stick mobs on it and root em and and watch them blow up just for the sadistic pleasure it gives me.
But yeah as others have said, it's just gravy for a functionally totally overwhelming primary like Plant. -
Yeah I know what you mean. I don't know what's up with the Psy Scream design, but compared to something like Fling Thorns, it's lacking. And the wide cone on Fling Thorns is only a quick hurdle hop away from jumping into melee and pairs really well with the rest of Thorny, especially aoe roots + thorntrops; it's like watching popcorn go off in a microwave.
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The only powers in Psi that I think are essential are Mind Probe, Mental Blast, Drain Psyche, Subdue and Psy Shockwave. Psy Scream doesn't mesh well with having to be in melee range of mobs and the cast time seals the deal as a not-worth-it power. There's also plenty of other powers to slot 6.25% recharge IOs in so there's no slot-mule reason to take it either. TK Thrust while nice for knocking things back ends up knocking things out of Mind Probe range when I'm in melee and forget to hit Roots before using it. It's actually pretty decent in PvP though.
People who want to try and softcap S/L usually pick up Mace Mastery, which is what I usually do.
People who want extra end and burst damage pick up Soul Mastery, the long cooldowns aren't too bad once you build for perma-dom.
Some people really like Hibernate, so they pick up Levi Mastery, which I think is a great oh-crud button. -
Quote:That's really a matter of opinion not borne out by fact.Originally Posted by Angelwing
Controllers really don't have access to any attacks until they get their Ancillary pools, so I don't have a problem with their powers being better.
*PPs are inherently weaker than primary or secondary powers. Otherwise you'd have Brutes running around with Darkest Night that's better than the Defender version or Scrappers running around with Melt Armor that puts Thermal Corruptors to shame or Dominators with better Dark Consumption and Dark Embrace than Brutes and Scrappers. But we don't see that because the *PP powers are weaker, have smaller radii, have higher endurance costs or cooldowns or have several of those limitation. Somehow Fissure seems to be the exception.
Now granted Controller Fissure has 2s higher cooldown, but it has a larger radius, hits 6 more targets and with containment achieves better DPS, DPE and DPA than Dominators. -
Quote:Psy Shockwave also has a 16 target limit vs. Fissure's 10. There's a reason why Psy is still the goto for the best AOE damage.Originally Posted by android33
yeah fissure my not not like much in terms of damage, but when you factor in that it has a stun, a knockdown, and 2.1 cast time... verses to just a knockdown and 3.3 cast time. plus it comes back 2 secs faster.
when you compare it to a dominate power like psychic shockwave, it hold up fairly well
PS: 70 base dmg; 15ft radius; 18.5 end; 20sec rech; 1.97 cast; effects= stun, -rech
Fis: 61.8 base dmg; 10ft radius; 15.2 end cost; 16sec rech; 2.1 cast; effects= stun, knockdown.
not bad imo. not too mention you can put some nice procs in it w/o gimping the power.
also, on an earth/earth it couples well with Stalagmites and earthquake. -
The only thing underwhelming about Fissure is the smaller radius, which more often than not misses hitting the max 10 target limit for it.
vs. Controller Fissure which is 15ft radius and hits 16 targets. -
My blueside fave is my Kat/Will Scrapper.
My redside fave is my Stone/Dark Brute although it didn't really get fun till I sank a few billion into it. -
I really liked Mauk2's build (mainly because I can't resist anything Claws), so I played around with it a bit, finished softcapping S/L/E/N/F/C and gave it a bit more regen...
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Quote:Yes, I'm having flashbacks to PvP basically turning into stealther wars like in all the other MMOs I've played. Invisibility + Highest damage output = no reason to play any other toon in PvP.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
I thought side switching already guaranteed this to happen?
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If the hitpoints and cap isn't going to be raised, Stalkers need Hide to passively add something like 20% extra resist all because the resistance secondaries scale horribly for Stalkers and that is a direct result of their low hitpoints (which indirectly translates into resists). It's not Ninjitsu or SR that gives everyone the impression that Stalkers are squishy.
Also, please don't increase their damage mods more than Scrappers unless u want PvP zones to turn into a Stalker vs. Stalker zone. -
I like Plant a lot better than Fire. Creepers for aggro management, fast-recharging confuse for control and higher damage Roots for containment.
If you want to recipe farm faster than a Fire just pick mobs that have AOEs that can be confused. Nothing quite like seeing a group of -1/8 mobs destroy themselves before you can even get your second Roots off. -
Quote:What he said.. the long animations just kill the whole set for me. Add in the redraw that irks me when I pair it with an active primary like kin or therm or dark and yeah, mine's been retired.Originally Posted by Silverado
Yes.
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At the risk of sounding like a cranky old man, ur actually lucky u played Dark on a Scrapper, blueside. On redside, u would be playing a Brute, which means stopping attacks to recover endurance translates into lost Fury and dps, which makes endurance management a lot harder. In addition, you would be fighting arachnos a lot earlier, which means toggle juggling is sometimes impossible having to deal with night widows, bane executioners and tarantula mistresses. And even at -1/8, you would get chewed up by demolitionists, arachnos and longbow nullis.