City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Patron Powers: Ghost Widow - Soul Mastery

5th_Player

By 5th_Player,
Posted on: 2006-05-01 24:37 in Developers' Corner

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
scrappers are already in melee though

for corrs its a bit riskier, since their "defense" is range

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not particularly true for many Corrs. Those with debuffs may not prefer to be in melee, but it's not especially horrible to do so. Dark and Rad in particular can usually take the risk. I would not use this power on a high-con boss or an AV, but I would definitely use it on a mixed group of minions and LTs.

Also, consider the average Kinectics Corruptor, who spends significant time in melee range to benefit from their own buffs and heals. There's plenty of precedent for getting "in their face" with Corruptors.

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
scrappers are already in melee though

for corrs its a bit riskier, since their "defense" is range

[/ QUOTE ]

however /Kin nearly demands to be in melee range. it is the strength of the set.

 

Posted

One can also argue that the kin doesn't need the damage boost from soul drain either... to play devil's advocate. Fulcrum shift will pretty much cap you out. Of course, for smaller mobs, I'd imagine a fulcrum shift followed by a soul drain will help you rehit that cap, not to mention give you a nice aoe blast from soul drain if you do it after FC.... and the accuracy ALWAYS helps.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
One can also argue that the kin doesn't need the damage boost from soul drain either... to play devil's advocate. Fulcrum shift will pretty much cap you out. Of course, for smaller mobs, I'd imagine a fulcrum shift followed by a soul drain will help you rehit that cap, not to mention give you a nice aoe blast from soul drain if you do it after FC.... and the accuracy ALWAYS helps.

[/ QUOTE ]

The point really was that the playstyle is valid. Kin has very little to protect it in melee range, but it lingers there to gain devastating damage potential. Particularly for those with primary or secondary sets than can offer some control of spawns, Soul Drain is not that scary to use. I would say it offers less benefit than the better kinetics powers, so I probably wouldn't reccommend it unless the character does already have some mitigation other than just range.

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Well I have the WIdow pet...so likely 3 Recharge, 2 Damange and the last slot either going to Accuracy or Debuffs if that's allowed.



[/ QUOTE ]


How is this possible, Thought you get the Pet At Lvl 49?

That means 1 Starting Slot & 3 extra at 50...

Am I worng? Because I'd love to get the pet lvl 48, so it could be fully slotted

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well I have the WIdow pet...so likely 3 Recharge, 2 Damange and the last slot either going to Accuracy or Debuffs if that's allowed.



[/ QUOTE ]


How is this possible, Thought you get the Pet At Lvl 49?

That means 1 Starting Slot & 3 extra at 50...

Am I worng? Because I'd love to get the pet lvl 48, so it could be fully slotted

[/ QUOTE ]
you get the powers at 41, 44, 47, and 49 right? so get the pet at 47 and you get 6 slot it. one of the powers isnt going to be 6 sloted but it doesnt have to be the pet

 

Posted

any numbers on the shield?

 

Posted

What level will the pets be? and what does everyone think about them? worth taking or do you have to take it because it makes up the whole set? (just like the Control-pets?)

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
What level will the pets be? and what does everyone think about them? worth taking or do you have to take it because it makes up the whole set? (just like the Control-pets?)

[/ QUOTE ]

Assuming they work like other pet powers, pets are your level.

There is a mission from Technician Naylor in which, if you save them from Longbow, you can have one of each of the "boss" critters from this list: Toxic Tarantula, Fortunata Mistress and Mu Guardian. Their rank in the mission is "pet". Thus, I assume it's a reasonable approximation of how they would function as actual pets.

The Toxic Tarantuala in particular is quite brutal in melee and has a hold of its own. The Fortunata Mistress is pretty good damage and lots of knockback. The Mu Guardian is quite nice because he heals you. The Guardian and the Mistress are comparatively fragile, since neither resist lethal or smashing damage, and the Guardian draws lots of aggro with his AoEs. It'd be interesting to see them in action slotted for damage.

In that mission, if you can keep all three pets alive (there's actually a fourth one - a Crab Warspider who's the actual mission objective) they're pretty unstoppable as a group if you support them at all. By the time I've had all three, the fourth boss holding the Warspider hostage becomes a walk in the park. This tells me that a team of players with such an assortment of pets can actually be quite powerful.

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

But do you think it's a mandatory pick just like the Dominator pets? Because Dominator pets are mandatory if you want to take full advantage of the set.

And another question, how do the normal attacks look like? I know I saw GW's Soul Tentacles attack and it was Soul Storm-colored. Do the others have the same Soul Storm-colored re-worked animation? (ie. Dark Blast, Gloom, Moonbeam, etc.)

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
But do you think it's a mandatory pick just like the Dominator pets? Because Dominator pets are mandatory if you want to take full advantage of the set.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I don't think they are mandatory. For example for the Corruptor version of Soul Mastery I very much want the armor toggle, hold, and Soul Drain.

I plan to take the pets on my Corruptors and Dominator (that's a ways off for my Dom) but not my Brutes and probably not on my Stalker. Of course a lot depends on how they perform on test. Because of the permanent choice aspect of the pools, I don't plan on taking the sets until I've played with them on test, which probably means deferring until I'm 47. The one exception to that is my Dark/Dark Corruptor, who I will take Soul Mastery on "on faith".

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
But do you think it's a mandatory pick just like the Dominator pets? Because Dominator pets are mandatory if you want to take full advantage of the set.

[/ QUOTE ]
No they won't be necessary at all in terms of 'balance'.

Remember that they have a 15 minute recharge but only last 4 minutes - so discounting any available recharge reduction they will be out less than a third of the time - so it's not like they will be making anywhere close to a full time contribution to your tactics. If you can make do without them for over two thirds of the time, you can make do without them altogether!

You do have various means to cut down that recharge though: Recharge Enhancements, Hasten, Accelerate Metabolism, Speed Boost / Siphon Speed etc., but the best you will typically be getting is around 50-60% availability (and that's if you are both slotting heavily for recharge, and using something like Hasten and/or AM, SB etc.)

Personally I still think the pets will be worth getting (even if they aren't "mandatory"), as they will surely make difficult EB / AV fights go a bit easier - I plan to get them on all my villains that can get them. I will slot all of them 1 Acc 3 Dam for starters, and adding a couple of Recharge for some of them if I have the spare slots at level 50.

 

Posted

I really, really, really hate the unreasonably long animation of Moonbeam. How would this ever be useful to a Stalker? Atleast free respecs are coming.

 

Posted

I can only assume it's meant to be used exclusively from a position of distant stealth, where the long interrupt period is basically meaningless. It's the only explanation that makes any sense.

Notice that, according to the prima guide, the activation time is only a little more than 1 second, but that the interrupt time is six seconds.

I guess this bad boy wants interrupt reducers. Two even-level ones will drop the interrupt time to 55.6% (3.33 seconds). Two +3 ones will drop it to 52.1% (3.125 seconds).

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Dark Embrace
* Self +RES (S/L, N. Energy, Tox)
* END: 1 unit/sec
* Recharge: 4 secs

[/ QUOTE ]

Let's see - the Brute version is :
* END: .19 unit/sec

So I pay 5x the End cost for a Level 1 Dark Armor self buff.
No problem.
I'm a Dark/Dark Corruptor - I have tons of endurence to spare !

 

Posted

that's one "unit" per sec, not one "endurance point" per sec...

they really cost .25 end/sec iirc

 

Posted

If Ghost Widow's Moonbeam was a fast as regular Moonbeam, no problem. I have 2 Interupt reducers in mine, but I see no difference.

 

Posted

I don't understand your response. It's because it is so much longer that interrupt reducers are effective. It will still be longer than a Corruptor snipe - that's clearly by design.

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
anyone get to 50 yet? I am very curious to see how the pets play out in this thing?

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Thge pets are a little bit like a weak Domination.

AKA They are mediocre at best with a prerequist of 2 gmped powers on the side.

Take Aid Self instead

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Patron Power Pools should be unbalancing and unfair after all they are late game powers and we can never change them...

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Like they are for Heroes?

(See Sig)

 

Posted

Anyone know if the dark blast for the stalker set forces a redraw? Is it a right or left handed blast?

Thanks

 

Posted

You can count on it. There are no out-of-set powers like this that do not cause redraw. Brawl is the only exception.

Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

I'm still stuck between getting this and Soricco ... ARGH! The choices!

 

Posted

The arcs Ghost Widow gives suck.

Unless you want "Darkness" powers, or she has something uber for your AT/Playstyle ((Brute powers are pretty much virtually the same)). Skip it and take one of the other 3. Their arcs are far more entertaining.