The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~ October 3 2008
By
Ex_Libris,
Posted on: 2008-10-03 16:41 in Announcements
Don't Look Back In AngerHey persons of indeterminate gender, I'm back and ready to rock. It goes unsaid that you should take a week long break after getting out of the joint through possibly illicit means. Or that's what my lawyer says. But here's one thing I realized in prison: how many enemy groups have we all gone toe-to-toe with? Skulls, Trolls, Luddites, Arachnos, Longbow, Hellions, Carnies, Rikti, Council, you see these folks everywhere you turn. And they're so common now. So here's what I want to do: go over the five most obscure villain groups. Because even the smallest cogs make the machine go, and I want you all to break the machine. Loyalists: Most of the time, we've never met these chaps. It's incredibly hard to after all, seeing as how they're all dead. They're an angry mob of faithful citizens loyal to Marchand. And as such, they must be destroyed. Now I'm not advocating beating up the general populace for the good of the future of Arachnos, and I'm CERTAINLY not saying it's fun to go back in time and assassinate Marchand over and over and over again. Well, maybe the latter. The point is that some things are lost in time, and justifiably so. Spetsnaz: I'm gonna let you look for that on the internet. Seriously, if you don't know, go ahead. I can wait. Ayup. Oh, some of you are still here. Wanna chat? You see that movie yet? The one with the rock star and the talking hovercraft? I thought it wa-shh, the others are back! Right, the good ol' Russkies. And I'm of the opinion that battles can transcend national borders.......okay, I don't know what I'm talking about. They're Russians, and you only see them a few times if you hang out with the wrong Russians. The ones with the mutants? No, not Boris. Pay attention. The Crazed: Yes, I'm showing the Heroes a little love. They're the interdimensional equivilant of our Mutant Hunting Comrades. But they only appear in ONE MISSION. An entire enemy group for one mission. I mean, the Spetsnaz were like the enemies in a miniseries but this is like some pathetic organization that gets lost after the pilot. They're like the Red-Shirts of dimensional travel. Armed with the supplies of a small caliber gun store and a hardware store, I can sum them up as a poor man's Hellion. Except crazed. Oooh, what're you gonna do, chase me throught the streets of London while frothing at the mouth? Hold on, let me write that one down. The Civic Squad: Okay, here's another head-shaker. Who are the Civic Squad? Literally a bunch of do-gooders devoted to the most inane civic duties, like providing food to the needy. Don't most of you heroes do that already in your spare time? And somehow they incur the wrath of the most evil person alive in Grandville,: Westin Phipps. I'm not kidding. I refuse to work for him. I break bones, he hits orphans with their own sick puppies. There's only nine of them. And you face, like, eight of them if you bring more people with you. And then that's it. game over, out of freaking commision in one fight. Like Crazed with powers. Whatever. Go back to the soup kitchen. The Prisoners: Yes, yet another group I love to hate. And you all thought I'd pick on the Infected again, eh? No, they already have their trophy of shame. I don't like kicking homeless scum junkies when they're down. So the Prisoners. Only encountered around the Zig if you feel like getting close, they're by far one of the most insignificant bunch of morons out there. It's like visiting your parents in the home for the elderly; you only see them if you WANT to see them. What, thought I was gonna make a joke about punching someone's grandma? Hostile don't play that. So there they are, the five most forgettable enemies to ever possibly cross your path. Some heroes will see them, some villains will see them. But in the long run, I don't really care. Fire at will. I'm gonna go check my mail. See you next week, and don't forget to send me hate mail!
| Phil's Philosophical MeanderingsPlayer Types (part 2 of 2) In this article, we will continue our discussion of the "types" of players, and why we play this game that we love so much. * 50 Elite Group - Why sit there at the lower levels, when you can have a huge stable of high level heroes! Much like the Badgers, these players like to have a big collection - the difference being that they collect level 50 characters, from every AT/Build combination out there! These players won't be happy until they have every slot on every server filled with a level 50. Fun for them is bragging to everyone around about their accomplishments in getting more 50s than anyone! * Game Breakers - Best epitomized by the player coalition known as the Repeat Offenders, this group of players lives to test the limits of the game engine, and to try to find ways to "break" the game. Whether it's with superteams of 8 of the same build, playing on the latest patch on the test server, or trying to find that elusive programming glitch or advantageous quirk that no one else has ever found, nothing makes these players happier than bending and stretching the game's engine to the limit. Fun for them is hearing someone say something's impossible, and proving it possible. * Optimizers - Trying to "perfect" their character, make them the strongest individual character in the game. These players are often times also Achievers, but not necessarily. An optimizer is defined by extremes. He wants the MOST damage, the MOST accuracy, the best recharge, recovery, and regeneration. Any stat that exists, any way to boost their own personal abilities, they will do it. These people love the new invention systems especially the rare purple sets, for they give them the ability to boost their characters to levels that haven't been seen since ED and the GDN! Fun for them is having the highest stats that anyone has ever seen on a character. * RPers - Role-Players concentrate on using the game world as their own environment to tell the stories that they've been eager to test. Future playwrights, or movie directors perhaps? Former or current paper and pen roleplayers? They may be either or both, but something tells me that this group will probably be the one to make the most out of the upcoming Mission Architect feature. Fun for them is telling an epic story, and having an audience to appreciate it. * Readers - Speaking of audiences, Readers love to play through missions to learn the "story" of Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. They read EVERYTHING, the mission text, the clues and souvenirs, the plaques spread throughout the city. If it's got a story to it, they're there. Collecting the arcane lore of the game and storing it in their little noggins is what makes this game fun for Readers. They, more than almost anyone else, just can't wait for the next "content" Issue to come out. * Griefers - Existing just to irritate other players, griefers are the second most difficult group to categorize. Frankly, this "dark" side of MMO human nature is a part of all of us. Is there any one among us who HASN'T done something nasty to someone else in the game? Few people are complete devils, and fewer still are complete saints. The griefer exists in each of us, but there are some individuals who go out of their way to cause distress and misery to others. These persons get their fun by making sure that you're not having any! * Casual Players - Hardest to classify, hardest to define. Are there very few casual players, or are all of us casual? What IS casual exactly? Perhaps that is a whole different article to write. I will say this however, as with griefers, all of us are somewhat casual in the way we play. This arises as a result of the game's design itself. Unlike in other MMOs, we don't have to spend days or even hours crafting, learning "skills", or taking down monsters. We can do most of these things instantaneously. This game was designed to be fast, easy, and approachable at the most simple of levels, while still having a world of depth under the hood. As a result, it's drawn players from all demographics, not just the "comics geeks". Who are the casual players? Really, all of us. If we weren't casual players, we'd be playing another game. So, which categories do you fall in? Do you see any that I've missed? Do you have another reason why you play that I haven't mentioned in these last two articles? What IS "fun" for you? Send me a PM, and your response may possibly be in a future article... |
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Writers BlockIm baaaaaack! Mwahahahah! Ha ha heh hah *cough*. Well that was awkward wasnt it? Apparently I didnt have my ideas in order for this segment. Perhaps I needed some sort of OUTLINE? Hmm? See where Im going with this? You dont see where Im going with this. Ok, Ok let me tell you then. This week we are going to discuss outlines! See how I worked that in with the start there? If you dont see that then you need to read more carefully and I can only help you so much. As I was saying, outlines are important when youre trying to get all those ideas that are floating around in your head, together. Im sure many of you remember doing outlines for essays back in the day when you were in school and some of you are still doing them now, like me. However, I want to go over the benefits of outlines real quickly this week and give a few examples and show how they can be useful. Okey dokey, an outline is what exactly? Basically it can be many types of things, but the basic format is usually as follows: I.Beginning A.Details B.Details II.Middle A. Details blah blah blah Got the gist? Now the beginning can take up as much space as you want. It can be paragraphs, it can be paraphrased, it can be anything. The details, however, are the most important part, yeah? Make sure you incorporate what you want in there. For example, say you want a fight to happen and your hero to get injured. For the Roman numeral marked bit, you would put something like, Jane Doe answers call to help civilians, gets in fight with Hellions, and in details you may put Gets shot in her leg, limps from here on out in story. I guess the main point of the details is to put down the things that will enhance the plot and move it along, as well as any bits of characterization you want to do and descriptions of setting and tone. I will be talking about all of those separately in different segments so read more Writers Block to hear about those. Now, many of you are probably rolling your eyes and saying, Oh man, yakkity, yakkity, yak! Get to the point of this segment! This is easy stuff. The reason Im taking the time to do this segment on a subject that is labeled elementary, is because it can very likely be the most overlooked. Fundamentals of writing can help you in the most astounding ways. Look at professional athletes or people who have regular jobs. They all have to brush up their passing skills in basketball or their physics to keep themselves sharp and producing quality work. The first description is of the most rudimentary type of outline you can see which may help you left-brained people and you organized people out there. The outlines can also enter the realm of the free-formed, which may be called brainstorms. These are just as effective as the outlines yet a little messy: John Doe decides to rob bank, goes to bank in Port Oakes? Cap Au? Atlas? Steel? Walks in wearing costume? Street clothes? Goes to teller and demands money using his (insert random villainous weapon here), teller agrees and presses silent alarm, starts to get money when Longbow breaks in, shoot at him? threaten him? tackle him? etc. etc. etc . Now try and pick out what would go in each section in a more structured outline, like the one first mentioned. Johnny Boy deciding to go to the bank would be the Roman numeral section. Everything up to Longbow busting in on his party, in my mind, would go in the details section. I prefer this type of outlining, because I feel I can get my ideas down faster, but boy is it squished and unorganized! This would then support the earlier outline for an easy to read, and simple to follow structure. Lets go back in time and look at what we have at this point, two types of outlines for two basic generalizations of writers. The first outline can be seen to have some very structured qualities but can take up a lot of space and time, while the other is quicker but harder to read and a little messy. Now, Im not trying to tell you to pick one of these two, Im merely suggesting a compromise. Look at the two basic methods and see which aspects you like about each one and create your own outline that works for you. This was a little technical, or as technical as I can get I think, for a Writers Block, but like I said, going back to the basics never hurt anyone. It will help you see where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are, such as inconsistencies or confusion about your own story. Ironing these out in an outline will make your fan fic seem more professional if you know what you are saying and how you want to say it. Dont get me wrong, writing on the fly works for some people, but there are those out there who just need to organize their troops before assaulting the castle right? Thanks again for taking the time to read, and I hope this helps you crazy kids with yer writin and yer imaginin. | Fan Fiction Spotlight
Once again, we're presented with a work of fiction that deals with the character's reaction to the events within the game. Aliana Blue is tasked with finding a particular missing person, and this inadvertently leads her to facing down the Countess Crey herself. It's not a terrible read, and it does have some interesting moments that relate to why Blue might have a personal vendetta against the multinational corporation as well as her own history as a hero. It's fairly straightforward except for one unusual deviation from most stories. Here, the main character is actually investigating the situation. Normally, comics and superhero stories are all about the action scenes, but Aliana actually delves into the backstory and clues of the arc, even going so far as to make a dialogue between her character and Janet Kellum. The story becomes more complete through this, and is a much more satisfying read. Now, there is a spoiler warning to be had. A lot of the text in this is lifted from the game arc and placed within the story. Anything relating to clues or dialogue between the game characters and the hero is mostly the same as you find it in-game. However, I suppose that can be forgiven, considering it's an interpretation of one character's experiences through that arc. So, if you haven't done the Janet Kellum arc, yet, and want to be surprised, I would have to recommend you avoid this story. However, if spoilers aren't a problem for you, I recommend this read.
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The | It wasnt the first time Mider Caid wished he was back behind his M.A.G.I. desk, and it wouldnt be the last. The cell had been empty and his crew took the opportunity to root through everything for any evidence theyd need to make their arrests stick. However, what they hadnt counted on was the sudden arrival of the cybernetic monstrosities, complete with a full complement of Tank-types and their Tank Swiper leader, simply named Blender. The freaks caught them split apart, and the first one to find them was the teams scrapper, who happened to be a former Freak named Johnny Slag. While he was no longer a Freak, he was a regenerating cyborg, and his refined combat prosthetics enabled him to still stand up to his former associates for a few minutes. Unfortunately, those few minutes didnt help as much as necessary. The former rogues werent used to working with each other, and they rapidly fell apart. The wizard tried to rally them together, but they distrusted him even more than the others. The former Tsoo ninjas, the Strik brothers, ducked into their own little corner early on. Hiding behind some machinery, they were able to create a bottleneck effect that allowed them to face two or three of the smaller Freaks at once and kept the larger Tank Freaks at bay. Mider worked his way to them, followed by a former Skull named Somber. Somber, despite having run with such a nefarious crowd, was a surprisingly timid young man. Caid could only surmise that the other magician had learned of a terrible price for wielding his dark arts, and preferred to fight with just his two hands if he could. The rest of the crew, an Outcast named Crag, a Hellion named Cinder and a plant-like heroine named Olive wound up tread underfoot as the Freaks pressed their advantage. They werent dead, as their MedCom beacons were still registering their connection to the grid, but they werent in good shape, either. Pinned down behind the machinery, Mider tried to regroup the remains of his crew. He was terrified, and he didnt know if the distress signal hed sent had made it to the Redeemers base. However, they still had to try to get through this. Alright, now listen! he hissed, I told you guys to follow my lead, and you balked! Now look where its gotten us? A staccato of gunfire and a hail of bullets against the machinery punctuated his statement. The Freaks were toying with them, now. Well, gracious leader, Danny Strik rasped, What do you suggest? Theyve got the guns, theyve got the numbers, and theyve got- Weve got your woman! Blender shouted, lifting a clenched claw that held Olive by her arm in a painful, pinching grip, And unless you come out from behind there, were going to see just how far we can push these nifty little MedCom devices! I bet we could pluck all this green girls limbs off before she finally croaks! And with that, Mider had a plan. It wasnt a very good plan, but it was something. It gave them an opening, it gave them a surprise, and it gave them a momentary edge. Muttering an incantation, he walked around the machinery, grunting a few words as bullets tagged him, but he kept his focus. He could hear Olive groaning as she fought against the pain in her arm and it caused him to shrug off the Swiper that came too close. He walked up to Blender and placed his hand against Olives ankle. Boom, he rasped before fire enveloped them all. |
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A View on BlueA Random Walk in Wentworth'sPeople are often surprised by the fluctuations in price we see in the market. Actually, "surprised" is too weak a word. People are often dismayed, even outraged, by the fact that prices go up and down. The only possible explanation, they insist, is that some horrible monster is deliberately manipulating the market for their own evil ends! It is certainly true that other players use the market, and that prices can change based on how other players use (or abuse) the market, but one should not underestimate the impact sheer random chance can have on prices. Let's do a little experiment. Imagine that we only have one item on the market, and that the number of people trying to sell the item is exactly the same as the number of people who want to buy the item. We'll even imagine that they all agree on a fair price for this item: 1,000 inf. What would you expect to see? All the buyers will bid 1,000 inf, and all the sellers will list for 1,000 inf, and everyone will get what they want and be happy? Maybe. Maybe not. Just to make things interesting, let's put in one little wrinkle: suppose that the order in which those buyers and sellers arrive at the market is random. We can simulate this by flipping a coin - heads means that a buyer shows up, tails is a seller. Go ahead, flip a coin a few times. I'll wait.
How did it go? A couple of heads, a couple of tails, maybe a few heads in a row? Sometimes they alternate perfectly, but if you keep flipping that coin, you are bound to have streaks once in a while. I just flipped a coin ten times in a row (okay, I cheated, I made my computer do it for me). I recorded the longest streak of consecutive heads. I did that ten times in a row. Here are the results: What do you think happens when three buyers in a row hit the market? Even if everyone, buyers and sellers, all agree that 1,000 inf is a fair price for this item, and all the buyers know that they will get their item at that price eventually, don't you think some of them might get impatient? After all, if the last guy to the market bids just one extra inf, he can get the next item to arrive, leapfrogging over the other guys in front of him. It must be a tiny bit tempting.
What if we flip the virtual coin 100 times? And to make it a little more realistic, let's look at the highest mismatch between buyers and sellers. Remember, if five buyers show up in a row, and then one seller, and then five more buyers, we will have nine people waiting in line for their turn to buy. Taking that into account, what is the longest line of buyers we see after flipping a coin 100 times? I'll do that ten times and see what happens. Now the line is getting a little bit longer. I think it's reasonable to suppose that this item of ours drops about once per minute. There are 1,440 minutes per day. I'll set my little coin-flipping program to produce 1,440 heads and 1,440 tails, so we get the exact same number of buyers and sellers over the course of the day. The order in which they arrive will still be random. Now how long do the buyers have to stand in line?
Those are some long lines! The sellers have the same problem, of course. Sometimes there will be a long line of sellers waiting to sell, and no buyers in sight. Maybe they will all just stand there patiently, waiting as long as necessary to make their deal, stubbornly sticking to the agreed upon price. Or maybe not? Any seller who drops the price of their item by just a little bit will be able to sell their item more quickly and get back to doing other things. Any buyer who raises their bid by just a little bit will be able to buy their item more quickly and get back to doing other things. I'll tweak my program a little bit, so buyers will offer more if there is a line of buyers already waiting, and sellers will discount their items if there is already a line of sellers. How big should the steps be? It has been my experience that people make bigger steps, in absolute influence, with bigger purchases, but that the steps actually get smaller in terms of a percentage of the price. If an items normally costs 250 inf, but offering that amount doesn't get you the item, people will often jump up to 500 inf. That's a 100% increase, but only an extra 250 inf. If an item normally goes for 4 million inf, someone bid creeping upwards might try 3.5 million. That's a jump of 500,000 inf, but only 12.5%. Our item normally goes for 1,000 inf, so let's try a 25% jump. That's probably conservative. If a buyer sees another buyer ahead of him, he'll bid 1,250 instead of 1,000 inf. If a seller sees another item for sale, he'll list his for 750 instead of 1,000 inf. How does that affect things? I'll run ten trials, and we'll look at the range of resulting prices.
Wow! From a starting price of 1,000, we get ranges of ten or twenty thousand influence. Of course, the sale price couldn't really be negative. I could have put a lower bound in there, but I think it's interesting to see just how much downward pressure there can be on the price. If we wanted a more accurate model, we'd need to take into account the fact that people resist raising or lowering their prices beyond what they consider a fair amount. Feelings like that would tend to dampen the price swings. On the other hand, in this example, the prices always started and ended at 1,000 inf, and the exact same number of buyers and sellers arrived over the course of the trial. The only difference from one run to the next was the order in which those buyers and sellers showed up. With that one little bit of randomness in the mix, look how far the prices jumped around! In our market in the game, there is no guarantee that the number of buyers and sellers will be at all balanced from one day to the next. I know it's not a perfect model of the market, but I hope this example is close enough to illustrate two important ideas. First, fluctuating prices are not proof of market manipulation. Second, patience pays. Prices go both up and down. If you don't like the prices you see at one moment, put in a price you like better. As long as the price you want is within the range of prices that item hits, you'll get the deal you want. All you need is a little patience. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As you probably seen from last week my idea of helping you folks come up with ideas for recipes. Quick recap incase you missed it. Like chicken but tired of the same dish over and over? Let me help out by experementing in my kitchen and see what I can come up with! Pm me and let me know what you need help with! I'll PM you back with the recipe I have decided to go with, and it will get publish'd in the scoop! I'll pick 2 each week and the ones that where not in the scoop that week will go into the scoop the following week! I'll be putting them though in the order they come in! This week my first reply comes from War Witch War Witch is into trying new things period, but she wants simple recipes, which can be done! Though sounds like she really adores her pot roast and gravy. I am going to stick with a beef theme on this one, but a little bit diffrent.
I hope that helps War Witch! Hope that helps and thats it for this week! See you next week with some more ideas! Mistress Noire Ps, I just got this the day before submissions where due, I can't leave this out, looks to yummy! Thanks to South
Gourmet cuisine it ain't. And it isn't authentic creole either (they don't seem to use rice steamers). But it is really good one pot cooking. Today's ingredients were: Two thin sausages (bought on sale), 2/3 cups rice (I really like rice), 2/3's cup beef stock, remnants of an onion (chopped), 1 small bell pepper, 1 stalk celery (all we had), pepper, scant pinch of salt, basil and herbs fine. | ||||
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Special EditionA couple weeks ago was the Players Auctions on the Champion server, a PERC hosted event with celebrities selling a 2 hour block of their time. So here I am fulfilling my duties to the player that bought me by doing this Behind the mask styled interview with him. Straight from the Champion server, here is -Shinobi. Thank you for joining me -Shinobi. This will be similar to the Behind the Mask interviews done by Teldon and HumanMiracle. My first question is where do you live? Seattle, Washington Your age and gender? 17, 18 in November and a dude You have over 30 level 50, do you have a life outside of the game? lol yeah, I work at my elementary school's after school day care 3 days a week. And in High School senior year. Wow that's impressive. What would you like to study later on? Still mostly undecided. Either want to continue with child care. I really like working with kids. Or get a degree in psychology. Nice, what kind of music are you listening to in general? Pop Dance/Techno. Almost constantly listening to a radio station that plays that kind of stuff with no commercials. Beside online gaming, do you have any other interesting hobbies? Occasionaly I go bowling and play tennis. I'm really into animes at the moment and like Nintendo games too. Let's move on to some gaming stuff, Is Champion your home server? If yes, are you sometimes cheating on him? Champion for sure is my home server. I took a couple months off from the game and spent some time on Freedom with a controller but I ended up transfering him here. Which contact/TF/SF is your favorite and why? Favorite SF is the LRSF... lots of AV/Hero fights, lots of fun. Favorite TF is the Eden trial cause of epicness and awesome map. I've run all the villain contacts and they're all good but Viridian is definetly tops. Which issue or piece of added content is your favorite? The invention system (I9). Right there is a ton of post 50 content to increase a toon to their full potential. It would be the same for me. Most hated ennemy group and why? Almost all my characters are squishies. Carnies and Malta are not fun. According to you, which zone or group of zones could use a revamp? Grandville, other than the ferry and the GV tower there are very places that are safe. And the zone is a nightmare for any Super speeder. | How do you keep yourself hooked to this game even though have you done the content several times over and over again? I enjoy hanging out with friends that I have made here. Which character do you consider your namesake or favorite? My mastermind Dread Shinobi 3rd toon and first 50. He's my main badger at 486/516 and gave the rest of my shinobi toons their name. That's a lot of badges. How would you describe your playstyle? I like experiencing all parts of the game. I heard that you spent like 900 millions on a build for a fortunata, so what's your opinion on CoX PvP? Do you think a casual gamer would be able to perform well versus all those purpled out toons? (laugh) who told you that? If you really want to do PvP at this point you need the IOs. Purples aren't necessary but some form of IO build. Only exception being zone PvP. At this point being able to keep pace with other PvPers requires IOs. According to you, what could improve PvP in this game? There are various tweaks here and there, I'm looking at you map selection. And some balancing that needs to be done in a few areas. I also feel there needs to be more reward for PvPing. There's three kind of players : roleplayers, addicts(loot, PvP and badges) and the casual gamer. Which one are you? umm the addict. On the Player Auction, you have been sold for 50 millions. Do you think that its your in-game exploits, your reputation (PvP/PvE) or your ability to create drama on the forums that got you this amount? Forum drama 0.o I have jsut recently taken interest in posting on the forums as another aspect of the game to experience. I'm a regular BMTer so a lot of people know me. If you had one piece of advice to give others about this game, what would it be? It's just a game. Don't take it too seriously. Just make sure you're having fun. Any final words for our readers? Not really. Just hope they find it interesting to read.
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Vol. 2, Issue 17
October 3, 2008
The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers! With this issue we have many of our regular features back and moar!
Read the latest publication and then join in on the community discussion!
If you have concerns regarding the content of the Scoop please direct your comments via PM to Lighthouse or Ex Libris.
If you would like to do a feature article, have an event covered, or join "The City Scoop" team please PM Snow_Globe
If you need some Advice contact Lady_Athyna or would like to Ask The X contact LiquidX
Finally if you have a Classified Ad or Recipe you would like included please contact: LadyK or MistressNoire
The City Scoop
Under the Hood
Broadsword Attack Chains
By
TopDoc
This is another article in a series about game mechanics. Today I'll be doing a
case study on Broadsword Scrapper attack chains. The things I do here can be
applied to any power set.
The first step is to find out the DPSA (Damage Per Second of Activation) for all
of the Broadsword attacks. The table below lists average Damage at level 50
after taking into account criticals. Activate is what the game tells you is the
activation time, but it's Really a bit higher as I mentioned in my last
article. I'll ignore Confront as it isn't a damage oriented power.
Recharge
Recharge
Recharge
Sword
Splitter
In the table above, "SO Recharge" means slotting a single Recharge Reduction SO
(33.3%) along with the usual 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, and 1 END Reduction SO. "Set
Recharge" means using IO sets (maybe Crushing Impacts) for 68.9% Recharge
Reduction in each power, plus 25% global from IO set bonuses. "$$$ Recharge"
means the same as above except 175% in global Recharge Reduction from IO sets
(including many ultra-rare purples), and perma-Hasten.
The % numbers match up with the Recharge values, and they represent what
percentage of an attack chain an attack can use. They are calculated as
Really/(Really+Recharge), and they measure how much of an attack cycle (attack
then recharge) is spent in the attack. A full attack chain requires powers with
a total of at least 100%, but usually needs somewhat higher (130-150%) as you
can't schedule powers to always go off exactly when they recharge. Broadsword
usually requires more because the long activation and recharge of some powers
really throws off the cycle.
As you can see in the table above, Hack is good while Slash is bad.
Unfortunately, Slash is a necessary evil to fill your attack chain till you can
get enough Recharge Reduction. Slice (Melee Cone) is only worthwhile if you hit
2 people, while Whirling Sword needs to hit 3. Broadsword is obviously not an
AoE set, so I'll concentrate on single target attacks. All of the following
ignores Slice and Whirling Sword, but includes Head Splitter which is very
effective as a single target attack.
Let's start with the "SO Recharge" build. Use the chain: Head Splitter, Hack,
Parry, Slash, Disembowel, Parry, Hack, Slash, Parry. This is pretty close to
the "whatever is recharged" method. The total for all single target attacks is
137% of the attack chain, which means we can't be all that picky. This chain
takes 15.55 seconds and does about 1614 damage after taking into account damage
slotting, for a grand total of 104 DPSA. You also get a Parry about every 5
seconds.
The "Set Recharge" build works out a lot better. Use the chain: Head Splitter,
Parry, Hack, Parry, Disembowel, Parry, Hack. Notice that Slash is completely
gone, and the total of the remaining attacks is 196%. Parry is still needed to
fill out the chain. This chain does 1358 damage in 12.39 seconds, or 110 DPSA.
That's only slightly better, but you can improve it by slotting damage procs
like Mako's Bite: Chance for Lethal Damage. If you slot a proc in each attack,
that's 7 times a 20% chance for 71.8 damage (average 100.52 damage), so you can
get up to 118 DPSA. This chain gets a Parry about every 4 seconds.
The "$$$ Recharge" build skips Parrying completely with the chain: Hack, Head
Splitter, Hack, Disembowel, pause 0.35 seconds. Those three powers take up only
118% of the attack chain, but we can fit them together well. It does about 1036
damage in 7.65 seconds, or 135 DPSA! Add purple procs (33% chance for 107.7
damage) to Hack and Headsplitter, plus a regular proc in every power, and the
total is about 157 DPSA. That's about 51% better than the SO based build. And
there's a pretty good chance that a Broadsword Scrapper loaded with purples and
other expensive IOs can survive without parrying constantly.
Slotting set IOs gives you three benefits. You can get higher total Enhancement
bonuses by slotting set IOs. You can thus afford to use one or more of your 6
precious slots for damage proc IOs. And you can get set IO bonuses such as
global Recharge Reduction. The DPSA increases in the second two builds are due
to both attack chain optimization (thanks to higher Recharge Reduction) and the
used of damage proc IOs. Both factors are significant.
Purple damage procs are especially nice at increasing DPSA. Most ATs are limited
to about 2 purple damage procs in their attack chain because purples are
unique. Broadsword Scrappers can use purple PBAoE and Melee Damage IO sets. But
it may be worthwhile to look at Epic or Patron Power Pools to see if they have
any decent powers worth adding to the chain. Dark Blast in the Scrapper epic
Darkness Mastery has a 52.66 DPSA, and it can slot Ranged Attack purple set IOs
that only Claws and Spines Scrappers can normally use.
So in summary, Hack is good while Slash is bad. A highly twinked
Broadsword Scrapper can do about 50% more damage than one slotted with SOs.
They also have a WHOLE lot more room in their build, as they can skip
underperforming attack powers.
Vol. 2, Issue 17
October 3rd, 2008
This Issue:
Don't Look Back in Anger
Phil's Philosophical Meanderings
Community
Writers Block
Fan Fiction Spotlight
The Redeemers
Market Watch
Behind the PvP Mask
Food & Recipes
Classifieds
Comic
Upcoming Events:
October Weekends
Champion
Shardtober
'08
October 4th
Vitue
Return
of the Giant Giant-Monster Hunt!
October 5th
Vitue
Fluffernutter's
Veggie-bananza!
October 10th
Vitue
Blood
Artists Swimsuit event!
October 12th
Vitue
Puppy
Appreciation party