TA/Arch what can I expect to bring to a team?
By
DrMike2000,
Posted on: 2009-06-22 10:02 in Defenders
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Good debuffs and some minor control (depends on what you call 'control' 
).
One issue with TA is that most (at least of the good debuffs) are location-centered. So if you team a lot with people who do knockbacks all the time/a good portion...just try to warn them/ask them to keep it within the location of the debuffs (or just prepare to use/put the debuff in a better location).
I know my TA/A was a huge pain when I tried to solo with him...he was...so............slow....granted I, at the time, was doing a 'team only' type of build so only had 2-3 attacks but...lethal dmg is still resisted quite a bit by almost every mob. With dual builds it shouldn't be so bad now (since you could have one for solo'ing and one for teams).
TA/A is fun...but just beware that your attacks and/or even the debuffs may fire right when/as the mob(s) die.
Good luck!
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Expect a learning process.
You'll figure out how much control/debuff is required at any given time. Because your debuffs are clicks not toggles they may not recharge in time for evry spawn, in fact several of them will not. Oil Slick Arrow and EMP Arrow have long enough timers that they will at best be used every other spawn. To me that's not such a bad thing. For one, since you are not using toggles, the debuffs don't go away if the anchor dies. Plus half the fun of pointy sticks is inflicting pain. If you take a lot of time at the beginning of a battle to debuff, you will not be attacking much. You'll have to figure out your own balancing act.
I like that I do not do the exact same thing for every single spawn, but then some powers are more fun than others.
Poisonous Ice 50 Ice/Rad
Icy Jax 50 Ice/SS
Jaxon Penn 50 Shield/Mace
Cpt Clax 50 Thugs/Dark
Lady BlackIce 50 Dark/Cold
Lady Black Ice 50 Dark/Ice
Bella Jax 50 Storm/Sonic
Operative Jax 50 SoA
Level 50 Trick Arrow Alts
TA/A-Plant/TA-Bots/TA
Level 50 Claws Scrappers
SR-Regen-DA-Invul-WP-FA
I found it was a set that required patience.
If I planned each encounter properly, got a good angle and fired off a couple of debuffs (whatever was recharged) then the enemy were too slow/weak/blind whatever to cause me much trouble as we mowed them down.
But if an extra spawn got aggro'd or I ran in half-cocked, the team could be in trouble. It seemed to involve a lot more forward thinking than say Force Fields, where you buff and go, or Kinetics, where you can often salvage a bad situation with a massive heal or Fulcrum or something.
I hated doorways, where you can see one enemy and all his mates are standing round the corner. It was too easy to exclude someone from the initial debuff volley.
It felt different from most Defenders I've played, and thats a good thing. Its not weak by any means, my Trick Archer duo took down Dr Vazhilok by themselves easily enough.
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Good debuffs and some minor control (depends on what you call 'control' ).
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I'm pretty sure that virtually everyone would consider a single target immob, a single target hold and an AOE hold to be control powers. Why the quotation marks?
I've got one at 50 and it was a blast. I ran with Assault and Tactics and found I had no trouble finding teams. They love the debuffs and leadership.
One single problem: I want oil slick to ALWAYS LIGHT. Argh!
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I've got one at 50 and it was a blast. I ran with Assault and Tactics and found I had no trouble finding teams. They love the debuffs and leadership.
One single problem: I want oil slick to ALWAYS LIGHT. Argh!
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I have that problem, and it is the BANE of my TA/A
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I've got one at 50 and it was a blast. I ran with Assault and Tactics and found I had no trouble finding teams. They love the debuffs and leadership.
One single problem: I want oil slick to ALWAYS LIGHT. Argh!
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I have that problem, and it is the BANE of my TA/A
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Its the bane of every TA. Can't stand it when OSA doesn't light.
To the OP... you can expect to bring significant Resistance/Defense Debuffs (Disruption/OSA/Acid), some soft control in the form of slows/knockdowns (Glue/OSA), one hold (Ice Arrow), and a KB (Explosive Arrow), Damage Debuffs (PGA), and a slight To-Hit Debuff and -Perception (Flash Arrow).... assuming you take all of them.
Thats not counting your ability to light OSA on Fire with Blazing Arrow and melt mobs, and/or use RoA to rain pointy sticks of death down on a spawn... doing significant damage do them.
Your AoE damage contribution to a team is nothing any team should take for granted... thats for sure. I was on a 8 person team with my TA/Arch and another TA/Arch. Between the two of us we were able to help the team move VERY quickly through RWZ mishes.... it was too easy after a while.
I have to say though, playing solo in the low levels was TOUGH... mostly because Defender damage with /Arch is confounded by the fact that you don't get far into the game before most of the mobs you encounter have at least a minor (if not significantly higher) resistance to Lethal damage.
If you build to contribute to teaming and play accordingly, any team will have a much easier time tearing through tough mobs with you there.
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Thats not counting your ability to light OSA on Fire with Blazing Arrow
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Ack, no! Blazing Arrow is just too good of a hammer to waste on activating another power. Pick either magic or technology origin and use the origin power to light Oil Slick. Then hit a boss or lieutenant with Blazing Arrow.
Not to mention if BA misses, it's a somewhat long wait to try again. If apprentice charm misses, it's a short wait or you can try immediately with blazing arrow.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Yup. Technology or Magic origins are the way to go with /TA. Honestly, those are the origins that make the most sense for the set, anyway. Other than maybe Natural.
Too many alts to list.
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Yup. Technology or Magic origins are the way to go with /TA. Honestly, those are the origins that make the most sense for the set, anyway. Other than maybe Natural.
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Of course, if your a TA/Sonic who cares what origin you are? You can use an aoe to ignite oil slick.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
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Yup. Technology or Magic origins are the way to go with /TA. Honestly, those are the origins that make the most sense for the set, anyway. Other than maybe Natural.
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Of course, if your a TA/Sonic who cares what origin you are? You can use an aoe to ignite oil slick.
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And if your like me, a Plant/TA who's a mutant... you can... eh... use... hmm... your SOL till 41 and fireblast... 
Eh, what can you do? LOL. still IMO my most wickdly fun controller to play out of the 5 I have.
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My common sense is tingling... ~ Deadpool
If you can't learn to do something well... learn to enjoy doing it poorly...
Yes, but you don't have to wait *that* long. The jump from 35 to 41 isn't that big. 26 to 41 is *frowns*
However, my TA/Ice is technology origin, so I copped out.
50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec
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Yes, but you don't have to wait *that* long. The jump from 35 to 41 isn't that big. 26 to 41 is *frowns*
However, my TA/Ice is technology origin, so I copped out.
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My TA/A is magic, but it's not a cop out. My TA defender is a pixie.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Technology devices put on arrows and also has places that make ice. Kinda a cooling suit type ideal. He's loads of fun, even though he's only level 24 and is apart of the "slowly leveling up club".
50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec
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Technology devices put on arrows and also has places that make ice. Kinda a cooling suit type ideal. He's loads of fun, even though he's only level 24 and is apart of the "slowly leveling up club".
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Once you get oil slick things pick up. At 35 I at times will slaughter entire groups with 4 powers. Those powers in sequence: Oil Slick, Acid Arrow, Disruption Arrow, Apprentice Charm
If there's an LT or a boss it takes a bit more then that... or if it's rikti... In that case I need to add EMP arrow to the mix so they stop teleporting around.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
One thing with TA/A is that you're constantly in motion. When you get agro, you're luring the mob into your glue patches. You're constantly aware of where the tank is and what he's doing. Your holds are more useful as 'Oh crap the blaster agroed again' buttons than as, well, the usual holds.
Get a feel for the AI of mobs so you can force them to follow into the traps you set. Glue+Tanker+Mobs=Good Times so get the mobs there and your team should be doing the same.
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Not to mention if BA misses, it's a somewhat long wait to try again. If apprentice charm misses, it's a short wait or you can try immediately with blazing arrow.
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I see what you're saying, and sure, being able to fire off an inherent again quickly is nice, but with Hasten and and two Rech IO's in BA its not much of a wait (never mind if a given player has a fair amount of global Recharge from set bonuses to further reduce BA's recharge time).
Additionally, the base Acc on most attacks in the Archery set, BA included, is 1.55... and its enhanceable, as opposed to the inherent attacks you get with origins (base acc of 1.0 and non-enhanceable except through outside To-Hit buffs or Defense Debuffs on your target... which BA also benefits from).
In my TA's career from lvl 26 on I've missed OSA with BA... hmm... maybe five times? Maybe... and that usually only mattered when I was solo. When I was teamed, there was generally a teammate with an ability that could (and often did) ignite OSA.
Besides, not all of us knew to take a certain origin to get an inherent attack that would ignite OSA. 
Saying to not use BA to ignite OSA is a somewhat bad thing to promote on the boards to less-experienced players, IMO.
For one thing it works perfectly well,
Secondly, it does so much more often than an inherent attack will based on BA's inherent Accuracy bonus and its ability to enhance Accuracy. Why worry about having to re-fire your inherent attack with its relatively short range compared to the highly accurate, longer ranged single-target attack you have in your secondary that recharges in less than 10 seconds (unless you don't bother putting any recharge in BA, and if that's how you build, then those are the consequences you suffer, I suppose).
As far as using BA to light OSA being a "waste" of BA... that's kind of an odd argument also, considering that BA recharges and can be used over and over again like every other attack.
Its not like a nuke on a three minute timer. With two Rech IO's it recharges in ~5 seconds... add in Hasten and any Global Recharge bonuses from IO sets, and it can get to be significantly less than that. So... yeah. I'll stick with BA to light OSA, and if anything is left standing after Debuffs/OSA/RoA... then I'll fire off BA again to finish it off, I'll guess.
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Saying to not use BA to ignite OSA is a somewhat bad thing to promote on the boards to less-experienced players, IMO.
For one thing it works perfectly well,
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Yes, it works. But no better than any other fire or energy power, including the origin powers. The difference is that when you use Blazing Arrow rather than an origin power, you've taken a use of one of your best single-target attacks and used it for zero extra damage.
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Secondly, it does so much more often than an inherent attack will based on BA's inherent Accuracy bonus and its ability to enhance Accuracy.
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A long time ago, the defense of the Oil Slick target was lowered to an insanely negative amount. Any attack has a 95% chance to hit it. Even the origin powers. Accuracies and bonuses don't realistically factor in to this particular equation.
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As far as using BA to light OSA being a "waste" of BA... that's kind of an odd argument also, considering that BA recharges and can be used over and over again like every other attack.
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Each time you fire Blazing Arrow at the oil slick, you're not firing it at an enemy and therefore wasting the damage from that shot. Sure, it recharges, but since it's the big hammer in the archery toolbox, using it for no greater effect than the piddly origin power seems like a waste to me.
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The difference is that when you use Blazing Arrow rather than an origin power, you've taken a use of one of your best single-target attacks and used it for zero extra damage.
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Correction, on this. You deal damage, the extra damage from the Oil Slick Arrow from being ignited. So in technicalities, it does work for damage. What your argument should be is this: Blazing Arrow does X damage, Tech/Magic Origin does X Damage, and OSA does X Damage. Blazing Arrow's Damage > Tech/Magic Origin Damage. Not sure where OSA lines up with those two, but you're getting more bang for your buck with origin powers than BA.
However, it doesn't particularly matter to me which is used since I don't have a TA/A defender, and might never do that. My point would be informing people who use BA for igniting them, point out that origins can do it and they have faster activation times, but it only matter with people that are Tech/Magic origins.
There's pros and cons of using each. Informing players of options and allowing people to play something without an energy attack in their secondary to ignite OSA and still be able to ignite it themselves and thus be able to solo more effectively. I still like my TA/Ice Defender.
50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec
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Besides, not all of us knew to take a certain origin to get an inherent attack that would ignite OSA.
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KHAAAAAAAAAAN!
/kirkoff
One can easily take the position that the High Tech Arrows and High Tech Bow constitute a Technology Origin.
That is, of course, if you knew beforehand that you would be wanting that Tech Origin Temp Power once you got Oil Slick Arrow. So my Natural TA/Arch tosses knives at OSA, but it does not help.
Still, the TA/Arch is fun, just problematic not to have that taser. But who knew? *sigh*
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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One thing with TA/A is that you're constantly in motion. When you get agro, you're luring the mob into your glue patches. You're constantly aware of where the tank is and what he's doing. Your holds are more useful as 'Oh crap the blaster agroed again' buttons than as, well, the usual holds.
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EMP Arrow is a great hold, especially when preceeded by Power Build Up in the Power Mastery APP. But you spend some time not generating any endurance thereafter. I guess that won't be as much of a problem once I get Conserve Power and fire that off beforehand as well. Otherwise, you have to be wary of running out of End. (I do, but I did not take the Fitness pool. First hero ever I have been able to legitimately skip it on.) I have the Chance of Mag 2 Hold proc in EMP Arrow, and I often see the Tesla Cage pop up on baddies, so I would recommend it.
Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow do seem to really ramp up a team's damage, and tossing a Glue Arrow on a group before they can scatter helps make for a nice grouping for your debuffs. And Ice Arrow has been the frosting on the cake that has held a Boss (by being the second Hold to hit) on many, many occasions.
Very clicky set, but a lot of fun.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
Hmm... I was not aware of the base 95% chance to hit OSA. Good to know.
There's still the issue of people who didn't take a Tech or Magic origin and therefore don't have an inherent to ignite OSA.
And as far as this goes:
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Each time you fire Blazing Arrow at the oil slick, you're not firing it at an enemy and therefore wasting the damage from that shot. Sure, it recharges, but since it's the big hammer in the archery toolbox, using it for no greater effect than the piddly origin power seems like a waste to me.
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Also a good point, but when you're basically melting an entire spawn at once (along with debuffs and RoA), do you *really* need to have BA up that one more time? IME, not really. That's me though, and YMMV, of course.
I'm ready to be done with it and have any power light the slick, or at least open it up to Lethal and Smashing (from the "spark").
I mean, we're not asked to carry arrows. Or fix bows. Or repair weapons. Or wear a backpack.
So if an oil slick can light why are characters not smart enough to carry matches?
I have played every powerset to 50 except for Trick Arrow. I wanted to try one because they are not that common. I usually run with a team and enjoy TFs. What can I expect to bring to a team?