Official Thread for Trick Arrow changes
By
Adamh_77,
Posted on: 2006-05-01 17:05 in Developers' Corner
I personally can't wait to see the outcome of this experiment. Everytime I roll an MM I look closely at the TA set then decide against it because of what i've read in these forums.
I have yet to roll a defender in Heroes (most of my time is spent in villains) but TA looks like a great set for a concept toon or just for somethng a little different.
Good luck guys, I'm looking forward to reading the nimbers on this defender v. defender experiment.
I have a 50 kin/rad defender, a 50 PB, a 26 rad/rad defender, a 40 merc/dark MM, etc that I can contribute... just let me know where and when (if I'm not working I'll be there)...
Balanced: If you could bring your scrapper, that would be great.
Veazey: Either your scrapper or blaster would work. Currently it looks like we've got a four-level spread, so even if you bring the scrapper we might want to exemplar you down a few levels. Or we might not, depending on how the team shapes up!
Drusus: By all means, come see the results first-hand if you're available! We're aiming for a mid-30's group of mixed heroes.
Biostem: Any hero that's not a defender or controller will do. Mid-30's would be great, but not a strict requirement. Just let me know what you'd like to bring.
So far it looks like I have defender duty. Mine are a bit diverse in levels, but I think I have a way around that. My plan is to do respec versions on the training room (egad, I hope I have respecs available!), making sure to not put any enhancements in slots obtained from level 31 on (since my TA/ is 30). Obviously, powers higher than 30 won't be on the bar, either. For the TA run, I'll need to be SK'ed; when I exemplar the others, somebody one level lower than the TA's mentor will be my target so that the effective fighting level is the same (ideally this level will be 34, since that's what level my Kinetics is). Sorry if it sounds confusing! 
The Tentative Roster so far:
Goofy Parrot: Defender duty (TA, Dark, Storm, Kinetics); SK/Exemp spot needed
Luminara: 36 Peacebringer
Balanced: 33 Scrapper
_Darkblade: 34 Peacebringer
Veazey: 39 blaster or 37 scrapper; Exemp spot possibly needed
Biostem: undetermined; SK/Exemp possibly needed
I may also have another volunteer, but not confirmed yet.
Just a reminder: Please have the unstable version of HeroStats installed and running; I really think that some of the information tracked (damage taken, etc.) would be meaningful to have.
Also, if everyone has TeamSpeak I'd prefer to use that over typing (old and lazy me); but if this isn't doable, I guess I'll let you primitives drag me back to the stone age and use the keyboard.
Work shcedule puts me on odd hours and prevents me from joining yall.
May the Schwartz be with you!!
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SK/Exemp possibly needed
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Just a note - exemping below 32 will throw off the results, due to the nature of the exemp system's enhancement devaluation effect. We need data that is untainted by as few outside factors as possible, so I suggest we keep the basic team level at or above 32 to avoid coming out of this with questionable numbers or anything that could later be pointed to as "wrong because X wasn't accounted for".
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Also, if everyone has TeamSpeak I'd prefer to use that over typing (old and lazy me); but if this isn't doable, I guess I'll let you primitives drag me back to the stone age and use the keyboard.
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I'd prefer to stick with text for communication. In-game chat is what a "typical" team or pick-up group would be using, and I think it's important for us to avoid doing anything out of the ordinary. Vocal communication would give us better coordination and control over situations than average teams/PuGs would have, which would also end up contaminating the tests.
If TS is going to be the preferred method, however, I'll use it. I won't speak (if i could replace my vocal cords with a text display, i would), but I'll listen to instruction as needed.
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Also, if everyone has TeamSpeak I'd prefer to use that over typing (old and lazy me); but if this isn't doable, I guess I'll let you primitives drag me back to the stone age and use the keyboard.
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Like Luminara, I won't be able to talk if we do TeamSpeak. I'm having mic issues that stubbornly refuse to be resolved.
Also, I think using text for communication would probably be a good idea, in that it keeps the data more in line with what "average players" would be doing.
Have you or someone you know been the victim of Nerd Rage?
Find answers, get help.
Take mog
I'd love to come, but i don't have any heroes in the mid 30's 
Now if you want to test your TA set in PvP, I'd love to provide a villain for you to take shots at in RV, just to see how the set changes between PvE and PvE.
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Take mog
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Hey, Heph. While I do appreciate the advice, I'll just redirect your attention HERE. After all, we don't want to completely derail the Trick Arrow forums with a discussion about MoG, do we? 
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Zen Concern brings up a point I've been wondering about for a while now--why are there no Archery/Trick Arrow Corruptor sets? Seems like a fairly balanced, fairly neato thing to have for CoV. Has there ever been an explanation for this?
Dr. Nemesis
Imperator and Founder
The Nemesis Council
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/Agreed
After having so much fun with TA/Archery, I was hoping to try the reverse.
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Im still wondering about a lack of WEather control or Illusion control.
The chaos a weather corruptor could cause....
And I want Illusion so I can make a villain I've wanted since CoH was out
On the flip side. Why no plant Controllers? Why no Dark Tanks? Why no Electric Scrappers?
Please just let me know what AT you'd prefer. My 26 rad/rad is very poorly built, so the best bet would be the scrapper, PB, or the kin/rad. Please let me know what time & where on test we're meeting and I'll be there unless something urgent pops up...
More feedback on T&A :P
Did a timed mission with a friend on test, after using a respec. Mission went well, however we both noticed a few things....
1) Healing was fine because my partner was a rad defender AND I dumped acid arrow / fistfull of arrows for the medicine pool. Now i can pretend to be a real defender on teams and heal. Helped out alot on our mission.
2) Flash Arrow's Debuff seems very pathetic and was not noticable on their chances to miss. They only really started whiffing when RI was on them.
3) Poison Arrow's Debuff / Sleep doesn't last very long at all and we noticed that when the mobs stop choking they would not start choking again. We maybe got 2 seconds or 3 of choking out of most mobs, less on others. I noticed no real damage reduction on foes with Poison Arrow either.
4) Glue Arrow refresh is still slow but better then it was.
5) Archery Attacks seem rather lacking in damage compared to other sets attacks and the damage is one of the most commonly resisted making the output even worse. Explosive arrow preformed pretty well though. Blazing Arrow is slow to recharge. Perhaps a small DoT for bleeding added to each (non fire) attack would help a little.
6) I solo'ed earlier and T&A is slower then some other defender sets for soloing due to weaker debuffs, no heals, less overall damage with a type that is resisted more often. My rad/dark solos 3x faster easy.
Now a few things to consider:
I am using (green) DO's as I'm not high enough level for SO's, that being said this set should be preforming decently with DO's. Currently it still needs more tweaks.
This set has no heals and the debuffs are sub-par when compared to other sets that have heals. I felt forced to dip into the medicine pool just so I could survive while soloing at the lower levels.
The Debuffs as said really need a boost to slightly greater then all the other sets that have heals and other utility. -regen would be good too as it is lacking that from what i've seen.
This is a fun set to play but the slowness and lack of stellar debufs makes this not as fun as it could be. The first round of nerfs when T&A was introduced sucked alot of the fun out of it back then. This patch does only a tiny bit to bring some of that fun back. Please re-look over the set and boost it a bit.
Djeannie's Costume Creator Overhaul Wishlist
Carnie Base
"Once the avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote" -Kosh
Drsus: [ QUOTE ]
I'd love to come, but i don't have any heroes in the mid 30's
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We should have just enough to sidekick/exemplar you if everyone shows up and my math is right (it being 5:30 a.m. and all). Feel free to bring anything except a controller or defender. Also, please make sure you have HeroStats Unstable running.
If you can make it, that will give us a full group of 8, which will be ideal!
Biostem: [ QUOTE ]
Please just let me know what AT you'd prefer.
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Anything except a controller or defender. 
If your signature list is your complete roster, that leaves only the scrapper and peacebringer. Either of those will work fine, or you can bring another of your choice if you have something else not listed.
I'm specifically not trying to build the perfect team here, so I'm not asking for specific archetypes. Whatever you have and feel like playing is what you should bring, there is a sidekick/exemplar spot reserved for you already.
As to the where/when, we're starting tonight (Thursday) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. If everyone's security level is at least 30, we can do the first mission (or two if the first one is short) of the Manticore task force in Brickstown.
If we have any sidekicks who aren't 30 yet, we can just run a normal mission.
Also, I'd like to ask everyone who's bringing a character in the 30's to copy a few versions of that character over. The reason being that if we're going to run this mission several times, it's possible that by the third or fourth run at least one of us will level. If that happens, it skews the test (doubly so since you'll be sidekicking or exemplaring another character). This won't apply to exemplared characters or sidekicked characters (as long as they don't train up and get new powers or slots).
I'll be on before start time, using @Goofy Parrot as my global chat handle. Just send me a message when you get on for the invites.
Some comments from a Fire/TA controller. Mostly from I6; I have only tested I7 a little.
It has been said above that the animation times from TA are not a problem for a Controller. Not true. i often hesitate to use Ice Arrow because I know I will be out of the game for a good while because of it.
Smoke and Flash Arrow combine very nicely. I have both on 3 SO acc debuff, and I see a decent amount of "whiffage". In I6, acc debuff seems to sacle with level, so I actually debuff high level/rank mobs pretty well. I guess this will disappear with I7.
Flash Arrow aggro is odd. If I am fighting one group with another group nearby blinded and I fear the blind is running out, another application of Flash Arrow often causes aggro. Even if the group is out of normal aggro range at the intant the arrow is fired. Also, if something triggers a group I've blinded, they suddenly seem to remember I was the one who blinded me and go for me, even if someone else activated them by moving too close. Smoke seems to work better here, but I am not entirely sure.
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Smoke and Flash Arrow combine very nicely. I have both on 3 SO acc debuff, and I see a decent amount of "whiffage". In I6, acc debuff seems to sacle with level, so I actually debuff high level/rank mobs pretty well. I guess this will disappear with I7.
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Ya got that bass ackwards.
In I7, Tohit debuffs (and defense) is MORE effective against high level/rank mobs.
Currently in I6 against a boss with 65% chance to hit. A -15% ToHit debuff drops them to 50%.
In I7, that same boss after being hit by a -15% ToHit debuff wil drop to 45.5%
For more info, see Arcanaville's thread: I7 Defense Scaler
Damage Proc Mini-FAQ
Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.
Hey all, I've always wanted to try and play a pure archer hero but have balked at the Defender with no Defensive Powers syndrome. Well, on TR, I finally caved and gave it a try.
I noticed that while my END never seems to drop very much at all, despite having not a single end reducer enhancer and not bothering with stamina and all that, that my damage output is very, very low. We're talking spending a boring amount of time even to take down greens.
To see how this worked on Live, I constructed the same hero as best I could (without the cool new costumes) and was astonished at the difference: END was a real problem and my damage was much, much more acceptable.
So, this leads me to ask: What is going on with TA/A Defenders in I7? The only thing I recall specifically is Castle saying something about animation times being lowered. Is it the plan to lower damage output as a tradeoff for less END usage?
I hope not because it's absolutely boring, constantly having to hit button after button and hop around like a fool to achieve what I can easily with one or two shots on Live.
Dev Team: please reconsider these changes if changes they are. If not, then something is really weird....
Cal2
ps: cross posted because I failed to see this in time.
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Smoke and Flash Arrow combine very nicely. I have both on 3 SO acc debuff, and I see a decent amount of "whiffage". In I6, acc debuff seems to sacle with level, so I actually debuff high level/rank mobs pretty well. I guess this will disappear with I7.
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Ya got that bass ackwards.
In I7, Tohit debuffs (and defense) is MORE effective against high level/rank mobs.
Currently in I6 against a boss with 65% chance to hit. A -15% ToHit debuff drops them to 50%.
In I7, that same boss after being hit by a -15% ToHit debuff wil drop to 45.5%
For more info, see Arcanaville's thread: I7 Defense Scaler
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Not sure you are witght when accuracy debuffs are concearned; as explained way back in the Smoke grenade nerf, at present add debuffs shave of a % of the mobs accuracy, just like defense will do in I7.
Of course, this infor could be dated.
For those running the testing tonight, I have a 30 Warshade I can bring along. Character name is Starshrike. As soon as he's copied over, I'll be playing around on Test. Shoot me a /tell. Oh, and I have a 31 DM/DA Scrapper and a 37 Spines/DA Scrapper as well.
We did run our defender comparison on the training room last night, and I'll be posting the results along with my impressions and analysis soon. I wanted to get it posted today, but I don't have as much time as I'd hoped to devote to it.
Expect it some time this weekend (while it's all still fresh in my mind!).
Operation: Same Mission, Different Defender results!
This is a really, really long post! Only read if you are genuinely interested in the results, or are a developer (heck, you can be both if youd like!)
On Thursday night, a few of us got together to compare the performance of Trick Arrow with other defender primaries. We decided to run one mission several times with the same group, swapping out only the defender. No other defenders were present, nor were any controllers.
This was by no means a complete or definitive test. There were factors which could be seen as swaying the results, but we were looking to simulate the average pick-up group. Some of these factors included: One of our Peacebringers used an area effect stun each fight (thus reducing the defendering needs somewhat); self-heals saw a lot of use; we ran from group to group without worrying about who or what was a debuff anchor; we (unintentionally, I swear!) got split up a couple of times.
I would have loved to have a Radiation defender subbed in, but none was available. Ditto for Force Fields. We were going to run a Kinetics, but time constraints (mine) prevented this. We did run a Dark Miasma/, Storm/, and Trick Arrow/.
The tangible data we were looking at included damage taken, damage done, experience per minute, time taken to complete the mission, and number of deaths.
The Group:
Level 33 Dark Melee/Dark Armor Scrapper (Balanced) (Sidekicked up to level 36)
Level 36 Peacebringer (Luminara)
Level 37 Claws/Super Reflexes Scrapper (Veazey)
Level 35 Peacebringer (_Darkblade)
Level 37 Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper (Valorin)
I played the following defenders:
Level 38 Storm/Electric (Exemplared to level 35)
Level 44 Dark Miasma/Dark Blast (Exemplared to level 35)
Level 32 Trick Arrow/Archery (Sidekicked up to level 35)
The 38 and 44 did not use any powers obtained after level 32, and all slots obtained after level 31 were intentionally left empty. So they were not getting any extra powers or slots while exemplared than the 32 had access to.
We ran one of Veazey's Missions, which was full of level 38 Nemesis (+3 to each of my defenders). Veazey had several copies of his character on the training room server so that we could complete the mission and restart it each time we swapped defenders. Nobody levelled during testing, so levels were constant for the duration of the test.
HeroStats (Unstable) was used to gather data. _Darkblade had problems with HeroStats which were not realized until after the first run, so his data is not included in any of the results.
Experience per minute was taken from Valorin, since he was tied as the highest level character. We were already using Veazeys mission, and I didnt want Val to feel left out.
Regardless of which defender was present, the groups approach was constant. Luminara would jump in and nearly die, and the rest of us followed doing our thing.
Here is the tangible data:
Run 1: Storm
Total team damage taken: 47,085.33
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 2,251.15; Luminara: 34,375.52; Veazey: 3,635.28; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 5,467.15; Goofy Parrot: 1,356.23[/list]Total team damage done: 106,299.29
<ul type="square">[*] Balanced: 16,269.99; Luminara: 14,702.84; Veazey: 24,448.67; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 49,556.19; Goofy Parrot: 1,321.60[/list]Experience per minute: 2,804
Time to complete mission: 23 minutes 3 seconds
Number of deaths: 1
Notes: I made it a point to use all of the tools in the Storm arsenal; all 9 Storm powers were in this build. Yes, I even used Tornado (though only in the final room). I still had plenty of time to toss in blasts, mostly in the form of Ball Lightning because that power just makes me giggle. This team took more damage than the other two, most of it taken by Luminara (she took more than double the damage in this team than in either of the others). Even with no self-heal, or anyone in the group to heal me, I only had to use Rest once in the mission, and used no inspirations of any sort. That mythical scatter that so many people are fond of complaining about didnt seem to be much of a factor here, but perhaps my teammates can elaborate in a more unbiased fashion on that.
The one death we did have occurred when a team member charged a group when I was still coming up the stairs, before I could round the corner and have line of sight.
O2 Boost had only the default slot, with an endurance reducer in it; most of the defending I did was through debuffs.
This group finished the mission the fastest, but that is partly attributed to the fact that there was no Nictus Crystal in this mission, while both of the other missions spawned one.
Ironically, the Storm team took the most damage (even though the other teams had the Nictus Crystal and more deaths), yet went the smoothest of the three missions. I think part of that is that O2 Boost, while being a relatively weak heal, has no to-hit roll involved (enemies were +3 to me in my exemplared state). Another factor which I believe influenced this is that in most cases, enemies were being kept fairly close together with Hurricane, allowing area effect powers to do their thing more quickly and efficiently.
I believe most of the extra damage came from the alpha strikes, as illustrated by Luminaras damage taken. Since I followed her in, mobs were not yet debuffed by Hurricane when they took their first shots at her.
Run 2: Dark Miasma
Total team damage taken: 43,167
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 6,296.85; Luminara: 15,370.56; Veazey: 5,589.35; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 9,565.33; Goofy Parrot: 6,344.91[/list]Total team damage done: 105,689.02
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 18,478.53; Luminara: 14,499.29; Veazey: 22,381.1; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 49,408.57; Goofy Parrot: 921.53[/list]Experience per minute: 2,438
Time to complete mission: 24 minutes 40 seconds
Number of deaths: 6
Notes: In comparison to the Storm results, this may look like a sad day for Dark defenders. The truth of it is that we were in full-bore pick-up group mode, and that is worth repeating. Darkest Night anchors rarely lived for long, and no attempt was made to save them for last. This was done so the comparisons would be valid.
Had we been coordinating, debuff pulling, etc., Im confident that this team would have fared vastly better than the others. However, we were not trying to fabricate ideal conditions, but were going for the stereotypical pick-up group experience.
5 of the 6 deaths we had were due to an exploding Nictus Crystal. The ensuing hospital trip contributed to the mission completion time (we were about ¾ of the zone away from the hospital in Steel Canyon, and the crystal was on the final floor of the mission).
Most of the defending I did was in the form of debuffs. Twilight Grasp had a hard time hitting +3s, especially when the Vengeance storm hit. I didnt see a single successful Twilight Grasp from the Dark Servant (though he did trail behind a lot and I could have missed it). I did mention we were fighting Nemesis, yes? I did not have a respec available on this character, but he did have every Dark Miasma power with the exception of Black Hole. Black Hole would have been handy for the gobs and gobs of baddies generated by the Nictus Crystal, but any other time it would have just made things more difficult for us.
With frequent use of Tar Patch, Twilight Grasp (hey, I was optimistic), Darkest Night (I reapplied as soon as I could whenever the anchor was killed), and Fearsome Stareplus occasional use of Petrifying GazeI could still toss out Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall every fight. I favored Tentacles for the immobilization, but the main point is that I had time to use both my primary and secondary sets. My attacks were damage over time, and we had such heavy offense that having any of them last their full duration was a pipe dream, so getting to 900 damage (against +3s) meant plenty of castings.
During this mission, I used no inspirations and did not use Rest.
Alpha strike damage was way down on this team, which I attribute to the fact that I was casting Darkest Night as soon as I saw Luminara rushing in to each group. So, while the debuff didnt usually stay around for long, it did have an impact on the alpha strikes.
I personally took significantly more damage in this mission than I did with my Storm defender, which is easily explained by the fact that Hurricane was always on, whereas Darkest Night was briefly on (earning me aggro) and then it wasnt on.
Run 3: Trick Arrow
Total team damage taken: 43,975.69
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 8050.80; Luminara: 16,878.01; Veazey: 4,635.30; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 10,063.20; Goofy Parrot: 4,348.38[/list]Total team damage done: 106,118.66
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 19,995.63; Luminara: 14,690.30; Veazey: 19,685.88; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 51,039.63; Goofy Parrot: 707.22[/list]Experience per minute: 2,437
Time to complete mission: 23 minutes 50 seconds
Number of deaths: 7
Notes: Somehow, the numbers on this compare well to the Dark Miasma team. Admittedly, we werent playing in a toggle-friendly mode, but the fact of Luminaras relatively low damage taken stat is something I cant explain at the moment. Mobs were Flash Arrowed, but a 9.6% accuracy debuff doesnt account for her taking less than half the damage she did with the Storm team. My best guess is that by this point, everyone was running in with her rather than behind her, as the damage seems to be spread out a bit more evenly among team members. Anyone who was on the team that can remember this detail?
The increased availability of Glue Arrow and Disruption Arrow was noticeable, as they were up nearly every fight.
The increased chance and duration of the sleep component in Poison Gas Arrow was nice. Even though this was an area-effect using group, there were times when some enemies would be out of the melee area attack range, and be slept when I applied Poison Gas Arrow. Sure, the sleep didnt last for long against +3s, but the fact that I noticed it at all is a huge improvement over the live version.
I used two health inspirations (one small, one medium), and used Rest once during the mission.
I spent an inordinate amount of time applying debuffs. In each fight I would cast Flash Arrow, Glue Arrow (nearly every fight; it was occasionally not ready), Poison Gas Arrow, Acid Arrow, and Disruption Arrow (again, nearly every fight). I used Oil Slick when it was up as well. What was happening was that the fights were almost over by the time I got done applying all those debuff powers, even not counting Oil Slick. The result was that I rarely had the opportunity to toss in attacks, and the debuffs that I applied towards the end of the debuff chain were not in effect for most of the fight. The combination of so many powers needed to get the debuffs down, and the long animation times associated with each, made this a full-time job, and an inefficient one at that.
To illustrate how little time I had available for attacks, I did 200 points of damage less with attacks that do up-front damage (Blazing Arrow and Fistful of Arrows) than I did with damage over time attacks that didnt get to run their full course (Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall).
One could argue that I could have chosen to not use some of my debuffs, but that wouldnt have been a valid comparison. The Storm and Dark Miasma defenders constantly used all of their debuffs (and heals), yet had time to use attacks every fight without compromising the use of their primary powers.
I feel that the length of time required to apply (and reapply) Trick Arrow debuffs is an unnecessary hindrance. While the animations may look cool, they are pretty impractical if you want to play the set as a Defender rather than a Blaster.
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Run 1: StormThat mythical scatter that so many people are fond of complaining about didnt seem to be much of a factor here, but perhaps my teammates can elaborate in a more unbiased fashion on that.
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I didn't notice much problem with scatter, specifically--you tended to keep things pushed into the same general area. I did have to chase my targets quite a bit more due to the Hurricane repel. It also made it a bit trickier to use Soul Drain effectively, since you usually barreled in right behind me. It wasn't difficult to compensate for, however.
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Run 3: Trick Arrow
Total team damage taken: 43,975.69
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 8050.80; Luminara: 16,878.01; Veazey: 4,635.30; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 10,063.20; Goofy Parrot: 4,348.38[/list]Total team damage done: 106,118.66
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 19,995.63; Luminara: 14,690.30; Veazey: 19,685.88; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 51,039.63; Goofy Parrot: 707.22[/list]Experience per minute: 2,437
Time to complete mission: 23 minutes 50 seconds
Number of deaths: 7
Notes: Somehow, the numbers on this compare well to the Dark Miasma team. Admittedly, we werent playing in a toggle-friendly mode, but the fact of Luminaras relatively low damage taken stat is something I cant explain at the moment. Mobs were Flash Arrowed, but a 9.6% accuracy debuff doesnt account for her taking less than half the damage she did with the Storm team. My best guess is that by this point, everyone was running in with her rather than behind her, as the damage seems to be spread out a bit more evenly among team members. Anyone who was on the team that can remember this detail?
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I believe you're correct. I, at least, was by this point accustomed to her berserk charges, and was making a point of charging in as close to her as I could, with my damage aura running. Note that I took nearly 2k more damage than in Run 2, and nearly 4 times as much as in Run 1. A lot of that is due to a conscious effort to pull aggro away from Luminara. I also found myself actually relying on my self-heal in this run--it had mostly gathered dust in the first two runs.
That brings up something to consider with this test: We did three runs of the same mission, with all the same characters except for the defender. We were, I think, working together much more effectively by the third run, and familiarity with the mission undoubtedly improved our efficiency as well.
On a slightly ranty, non-TA note: Nemesis Vengeance sucks. I kept an eye on my accuracy stats, and most of my primary attack chain stayed below 70% for the whole test. After the last mission, most of my attack chain showed an average between 40% and 55%. Granted, this is mostly against +1 and +2 enemies, but I was also leading off with Soul Drain as often as possible to buff my accuracy. I took a quick poll of the others after the test, and they mostly reported similar accuracy. It appears that Vengeance was cutting our modified to-hit roughly in half on the average. It really should be made non-stacking.
The Way of the Corruptor (Arc ID 49834): Hey villains! Do something for yourself for a change--like twisting the elements to your will. All that's standing in your way are a few secret societies...and Champions of the four elements.
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Notes: Somehow, the numbers on this compare well to the Dark Miasma team. Admittedly, we werent playing in a toggle-friendly mode, but the fact of Luminaras relatively low damage taken stat is something I cant explain at the moment. Mobs were Flash Arrowed, but a 9.6% accuracy debuff doesnt account for her taking less than half the damage she did with the Storm team. My best guess is that by this point, everyone was running in with her rather than behind her, as the damage seems to be spread out a bit more evenly among team members. Anyone who was on the team that can remember this detail?
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I believe you're correct. I, at least, was by this point accustomed to her berserk charges, and was making a point of charging in as close to her as I could, with my damage aura running. Note that I took nearly 2k more damage than in Run 2, and nearly 4 times as much as in Run 1. A lot of that is due to a conscious effort to pull aggro away from Luminara. I also found myself actually relying on my self-heal in this run--it had mostly gathered dust in the first two runs.
That brings up something to consider with this test: We did three runs of the same mission, with all the same characters except for the defender. We were, I think, working together much more effectively by the third run, and familiarity with the mission undoubtedly improved our efficiency as well.
On a slightly ranty, non-TA note: Nemesis Vengeance sucks. I kept an eye on my accuracy stats, and most of my primary attack chain stayed below 70% for the whole test. After the last mission, most of my attack chain showed an average between 40% and 55%. Granted, this is mostly against +1 and +2 enemies, but I was also leading off with Soul Drain as often as possible to buff my accuracy. I took a quick poll of the others after the test, and they mostly reported similar accuracy. It appears that Vengeance was cutting our modified to-hit roughly in half on the average. It really should be made non-stacking.
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If I remember right, during this mission I was making more of a concerted effort to switch to nova form and clean up by blasting while everyone else was in melee or near melee range. That was undoubtedly a factor in Lum's lower damage intake as well: the mobs simply weren't up as long.
While my herostats was borked, it definitely did seem that I was missing quite a bit more than normal.
Just a quick note on TA's animation issues: I'm not sure that's gonna change very much. _Castle_ did make the comment that they wanted to make the set look as smooth as possible. Another possibility might be lengthening the debuff times so we wouldn't have to reapply so much, but that would undoubtedly mean dealing with longer recharge times and/or higher endurance costs to compensate.
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Some of these factors included: One of our Peacebringers used an area effect stun each fight (thus reducing the defendering needs somewhat);
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I knew I shouldn't be doing that, but I wanted to be as realistic in the test as I would be in actual play. That, and the stupid nictus crystals, is why I suggested that we should try it again sometime without using Kheldians.
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Regardless of which defender was present, the groups approach was constant. Luminara would jump in and nearly die, and the rest of us followed doing our thing.
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>.>
<.<
Someone told me there was a ZAPPY ARROW hidden on one of the mobs and I had to get it before anyone else did!
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That mythical scatter that so many people are fond of complaining about didnt seem to be much of a factor here, but perhaps my teammates can elaborate in a more unbiased fashion on that.
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I noticed it, but I was so busy frantically pounding the Tab key to try to find a minion to smoosh that it didn't really have any impact. We also typically had walls close enough to keep the situation controllable.
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I believe most of the extra damage came from the alpha strikes, as illustrated by Luminaras damage taken.
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For which I'll be tweaking Solarsong's build slightly to fit Stealth in. Just a personal side note. >.>
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Black Hole would have been handy for the gobs and gobs of baddies generated by the Nictus Crystal, but any other time it would have just made things more difficult for us.
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Not even then, actually. I was the first one up the stairs on that run... okay, on every run, but back to the point ( 
), the instant I saw and recognized the crystal (thus the profanity when i reached the top of the stairs), I immediately set about taking it down first. It was defeated very quickly, and I believe the resulting explosion took out many of the remaining Nemesis mobs. Black Hole would've been just as bad there as anywhere else, I believe.
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Alpha strike damage was way down on this team, which I attribute to the fact that I was casting Darkest Night as soon as I saw Luminara rushing in to each group.
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Have I mentioned that my first 50 was a tank, and my second was a Kin/Elec scrapper?
>.>
<.<
Oh, and I think there's something buggy going on with Tar Patch, unless there's a new Nemesis attack that debuffs recharge. I had 3 recharge debuffs on me throughout the course of the Dark Miasma run, and I don't know where they came from.
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Notes: Somehow, the numbers on this compare well to the Dark Miasma team. Admittedly, we werent playing in a toggle-friendly mode, but the fact of Luminaras relatively low damage taken stat is something I cant explain at the moment.
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The team was used to my mad charges at this point. In fact, there were three or four points during this run when someone else tried to take the alpha. That made a huge difference, because each time, it was while I was waiting the last few seconds for Pulsar to recharge. By the third run, I was rarely going into spawns alone, whereas the first two runs had most of the team rushing in to save me after I fired off Pulsar.
At this point, I think it's an honest assessment to say that my play style with this character wasn't conducive to the test environment. But it's all I had that wouldn't be exemped down or SKed up at the time. v.v
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I feel that the length of time required to apply (and reapply) Trick Arrow debuffs is an unnecessary hindrance. While the animations may look cool, they are pretty impractical if you want to play the set as a Defender rather than a Blaster.
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Some of the animations are still buggy. Pauses after Acid, Ice, and Entangling, for example, the same type of pause that was removed from the ends of Fistful, Ranged, and Rain of Arrows.
Ugh, this is what I get for posting in a hurry.
I forgot my manners.
Huge, HUGE thanks to Balanced, Luminara, Veazey, and _Darkblade for taking the time to run this test.
I have a 30 TA/archery and a 30 rad/rad in the defender market.
Also available are a 50 elec/elec blaster, 39 AR/devices blaster, 37 claws/SR scrapper, and a piddly 15 warshade.
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