Human form PB - mez woes

Is there anyway to stop/prevent hold and stun effects when in human form? The only power I can see that offers me hold protection is Acrobatics. I have not taken this power before, and am not so sure about it.

Has anyone had experience with Acrobatics, on a PB or non-PB? I am not sure if the -2 hold protection is any good. Redtomax says Acrobatics has something like a ~54.5% hold resist. Will this reduce the duration of any hold of greater than Mag 2?

Is this a power worth taking? (I have Combat Jump, so acrobatics is another two powers! ug)

Be wary of your terminology: Mez Protection is what prevents a mez from having ANY effect on you, Mez Resistance reduces the duration of mez effects. Acrobatics has Hold Resistance, and Knockback Protection. There is no true mez protection available via the Power Pools (true mez being: stun, disorient, sleep, and hold - ie. an effect that prevents you from using any powers or inspirations except break frees). The Epic Power Pools have some mez protection, but they aren't available to PBs. Your choices are: carry break frees, use lightform, take dwarf form, or team up with people that can provide you with mez protection.


[edit: forgot about lightform, shame on me!]

Your first option, according to any tri-former, will be to just take Dwarf form. So, I'll go ahead and be the first to put that out there. Dwarf will protect you from pretty much any immob, hold, stun, confuse, fear, ect.

However, if you're trying to remain a human-form PB (I have one myself), then I would suggest two things: First, bring plenty of break-frees. Normally on my Khelds, I have about 3 on me at all times... However, if you know you're going to be fighting some mez-heavy foes (i.e. CoT or Rikti), then pack more... Hit a break free BEFORE you run into a mob for the alpha strike, and you won't have any problems pulling off a full attack chain. I don't have to pop them often, but again, I'm not constantly fighting CoT or Rikti, either. IMO, you're just asking for aggravation if you're soloing those guys--On a team with any sort of 'troller, you're likely to be in a much better situation.

Secondly, I'm not sure if you have Light Form built into your Human Form... If you don't, I'd highly suggest not only getting it, but building your human form with as many recharge set bonuses/global recharges as you can to get Light Form up and ready to use as often as possible. Light Form gives you both protection AND resistances against Hold, Stun, Sleep, Immobilize, Knockback, and Repel for its entire duration--You're basically in "god mode" when it's activated, much like a "fully tapped" Eclipse--so, definitely build for that thing to recharge as fast as possible, and fight around that.

On the question of Acrobatics, yes, it has good resistances to holds... Remember, this isn't "protection" from holds, it's just reducing the duration of it--meaning, you'll still get held... just for roughly half as long. Now, if they'd offer any pool power that had that kind of resistance to stuns, I'd be on top of that in a heartbeat...

Hope this helps!

"The One"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

You know... I just thought of something... The "numbers guys" might be a little more helpful at this, but I would think that building for some set bonus defenses would be quite helpful for getting somewhat "protected" from getting held. If their powers are missing you, then you're not getting held! I'm not sure which defense you'd have to build for though, as some enemies have different types of holds... For example, a CoT Death Mage might have a single-target ranged hold, whereas a Rikti might have some sort of cone-shaped or AoE mez.... I'm not an expert on every enemy power in the game, so definitely don't take my word on this... I'm just saying that maybe you should look into building for defense as well, because that may help your "overal" human-form build playstyle that you choose to play.

"The One"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

Actually, Acrobatics does give mag 2 hold protection according to Mids. However, mag 2 is pretty pathetically weak and not all that useful (considering how expensive Acro is (requires 2 other powers and is rather endurance heavy).

Breakfrees are definitely your best bet (mediums are rather cheap). The only other viable solution is to get them before they get you. This is where having Devastation Hold Procs in your ST attacks is handy. Sure, you can't rely solely on them, but they do go off quite frequently and can make a difference when it's needed most.

The mag2 protection given from Acrobatics wont actually protect you from any mez that I know of - though I am far from an expert I think they are all mag3 at least, or at least any that I have noticed, the reason most people take Acrobatics is for the KB protection which is good, I don't know anyone who takes it for the hold protection/resistance.

But AlienOne is right that building for defence would negate some of the effects because the mez's would miss you. Most of the mez's that will affect you are AoE's, unless you regularly take the alpha and get the single target ones, which tend to be ranged rather than melee.

You can get your AoE defence up to 20 or 30% without losing too much, and that will protect you from about half the AoE mezzes that come your way.

Sadly there isn't an easier way for a human form only.

(I know you are human only but if you find the mezzes are getting you killed I would consider taking White Dwarf even if you don't slot it, at worst you can TP to safety and wait the mez out.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

Pre-Light Form, all the advice everybody gave is good. Post Light Form (lvl 38 all the way to 50), you are good to go with Human Only, thanks to recent changes. No toggles dropping and the 3-1 Insp Swap *IS* your mez protection and it works fine.

I'll solo any non-AV mission or arc in the game on my Human PB without blinking. Example: I've soloed most of Crimson's Malta arcs and Harvey Maylor's (sp?) Carnie Arcs and I never had to make an escape to the store or contact for more BFs, the 3-1 swap means I always had 3-5 on me (that's how many I try to keep). This, plus the tactic of bashing the smack out the Mezzer first should get you thru just about everything.

Another good test: a Bank Mission in PI. The whole map is full of Carnies and Malta, as is the Vandals and Side Missions. I've cleared the entire map and completed all side missions more the once on my Human PB, often with several minutes to spare.

Again, all this PB uberness really only takes effect post-38, and with good IO slotting, you'll find you don't use Light Form that much anymore. That said, I leveled my PB Human only all the way from 1, soloing a good chunk of it (alot prior to the 3-1 and toggle changes too). While it's certainly challenging, I never experienced the mezzing horror stories some describe. I think that knowing I had to deal with it going in (meaning I had to use tactics to overcome it, and not flip out when it did happen) made a good bit of difference too.

Perhaps it's a change in mindset, but that's doable too - after all, my first 50 was a Scrapper

Socorro makes a good point, you have pre-emptive tools in your arsenal to avoid the mezzers at least when solo - whack them in the face before they see you, get them stunned or knocked on their backsides or dead - 'most' mezzers are lt's so should stun in one hit.

In a team there are more mezzers that you can't necessarily just deal with that quickly, but you should have the support of controls/shields/mez protection anyway, or even just learn to never be directly behind whoever takes the alpha and try attacking from as close to the back as you can get.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

Just my 2 inf:

Since I'm still new at this Kheldian thing, I too got frustrated at the whole "everything and it' cousin mezzing me happy-funtime extravaganza".

My sorta solution: "Impervious Skin: Mez Status Protection", gives a +7.5% in mez reduction/resistance (whichever it is)...and they're non-unique.

I currently have 2 slotted and have a third waiting for a power selection. That'll give me a 22.5% mez....thingie.

After playing around in Mids...if you were crazy enough and took ALL the shields, tough, and slotted one into dwarf form, you "could" end up with 37.5% mez status whatever. And that's not even taking into account the Aegis:Mez Status enhancement.

Note: I figure that regardless of whether it's mez "resistance" or "status duration", ANY amount you can throw in that direction is a "good idea"...if you can spare the slots. Don't get me wrong, I took dwarf form and it's a blast AND taking that much mez resist would be a "little" silly for dwarf form, but for human form? Can't hurt to get a couple.

My All Human PB has 3 of the Impervious Skin: Mez Status Protection slotted as well as the Aegis:Mez Status enhancement. He also has Acrobatics and the KB protection IO from the Steadfast protection set. I've primarily built him around Rech, Regen, and HP and I'm able to get him to perma Essence Boost w/ Hasten in the build. I have a great time soloing him on Invincible, and what I usually like to do when I see a void/quant is to kill all the minions around him and save him for last so I can have a 1v1- that's how much I no longer fear them. Even better if I can encounter a Void/Quant boss- I always come out on top, but it's fun to see that they try to put up a fight . And the few times that he does get mezzed, it's only for a few seconds and that fact that shield toggles don't drop anymore means I can just keep on chuggin along. On teams it gets even crazier, he's usually a non-stop wreckin' machine. And this is all without even using Light Form yet, which I only use for really extreme situations.

My current project is my Tri-Form WS- I'm looking forward to all the madness that is Tri-Form once he hits 50 and I can start building up his IO sets, hehe!

You're a funny guy, Obsidian. Thanks for the entertainment!

I don't even have to think for half a second for a powerset/AT who couldn't function as well taking full aggro on an 8-man mob, if a F/K has only pulled off 2 powers, including AVOIDING Flashfire. There are others who could, so I'm not saying "no one can," but you're seriously saying that the entire "power of a f/k" lies in FS and Fire Cages? C'mon, man... You're arguments are deteriorating quickly... FS is a lot of it, yes, but there's a lot more to a f/k than just FS. Any f/k will tell you that.

In fact, I could have stated I could accomplish the same thing without the f/k (though not nearly as fast--It'd be a few seconds slower), which I can (yes, team scaled to 8)... But, that wasn't the aim of the statement. The aim of the statement was to say that I've usually got the group down (except for the 2 bosses in an 8-man mob) before the f/k has a chance to pull off a 3rd power....which, umm...yeah.... shows off the power of a f/k...sure. I should get some of my f/k friends to post how fast they've been able to take down 8-man mobs with just FS and Fire Cages--nothing else. I'm sure you'd see some pretty laughable numbers there.

I've gotta use that statement "you're not tanking, you're aggroing" with my friends and then clock how long the continuous stream of laughter goes, and post those "numbers".... In fact, that's pretty quote-worthy! Gratz!

Even a tri-former would have to start in human-form with a fully-slotted Gravity Well and Unchain Essence to match the numbers for the seconds it took to take thoses minions/LTs down. Heck, if you started your attacks in nova form (after an eclipse) and stayed in the middle of the group for a full FS hit, and then flew back for nova attacks, that'd still take you longer to take the mob down time-wise, even though nova's damage is *superior*... My statement wasn't on "damage numbers"... It was on "time," which, I guess does say a little bit about how much damage you can do in human-form before even switching to any other form.

But, you're exactly right... Totally unfounded statements FTW! haha!

Lovin' it.

"The One"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

good advice here (as always)...I play both my PB and WS in human form the majority of the time. My solution is always carry break frees and once an hour stop at the base for the temp buff stations mez and damage protections. They last an hour (no matter what the description says)..and as someone stated, even if you ARE mezzed your protection toggles dont drop anymore. so all I really have to worry is damage when I'm mezzed and restarting orbiting debt (on my warshade)

I gave up trying to play a Kheldian and have regulated myself to suggesting a branching PPD epic with a Kheldian branch (alongside the Hardsuit and Psionic branches).