Archery/TA can't kill solo Bosses at lvl 22?
By
Aura_Familia,
Posted on: 2010-08-17 14:32 in Corruptors
Actually, I hit Bosses with everything, but if they have ranged attacks, nothing my Archery/TA does can outlast the boss. I don't have Ice Arrow 6-slotted yet, so that might help a little when I can freeze bosses for a bit with it.
I would like to add however that there is nothing that TA does that isn't done by most other Defense sets, but those Defense sets also get a Heal of some type, usually a very good heal. TA seems to be weighted to using Oil Slick Arrow in place of a Heal. OSA is nice when and if it actually works, but TA needs better mitigation or HP replacer nonetheless. It is surely never going to get a Heal so I'll pitch the idea of Ice Arrow getting a 50% chance to apply and additional mag 2 Hold. If TA is supposed to be the offensive defense set it is touted as it needs to be special in that way and not just mold itself after defense sets with heals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLr...eature=related
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
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You've got two pretty bad "solo sets". Archery for one and then /TA. I made a Mastermind /TA and Trick Arrow by far is the weakest set IMO. Yes, it's got a neat Glue Arrow but unless you are serious about leveling one to lvl 35, Trick Arrow is not a good solo set at all. Your best bet is eat inspirations (purple) and try to stack holds. You have another problem because Archery doesn't have a hold so it can't stack with Ice Arrow. |
Originally Posted by Quixotik
Obviously if they are melee bosses who can be immobilized, you can, after 2 to 3 minutes of relentless attacking. However, if they are ranged at all or immune to immobilize, your TA dies without 6-8 Defense inspirations.
It's very disappointing to fire off 7 or 8 shots at a boss and still see them at 70% health even though they are debuffed with Acid Arrow and your toon is running Assault, pretty much full SO's on major attacks. I have a level 43 Defender TA/Archer who relies more on it's one epic power than anything in TA. That's why I stopped playing CoX regularly. Spending so much time on something that never functions is unacceptable to me. Should I shelve the Archery/TA Corrupter, or does it eventually solo same level Bosses well? |
If I were you, I would start with Explosion Arrow and hope it does a good knockback and then I would try to stack Immb just so you have some breathing room. I would also try to fight with fly pack in the air so you don't get nasty melee damage.
Other than that, Trick Arrow is very weak for soloing especially as a Corruptor because on MM, I can at least shoot like 4 arrows (pretending that I am very useful) while my pets are attacking.
I like Archery but mainly for Build Up, Aim, Rain of Arrow on Blaster. Trick Arrow is mainly for team plays and it shines a bit later on. Make sure Blazing Arrow is well slotted.
PS: If the boss has holds/stuns, then make sure you bring one Break Free.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Trick Arrow is still under-performing. Ice Arrow still takes too long to shoot but the problem with Corr/MM is that Troller also has TA. If they improve Ice Arrow, then you'll have Troller who can reliably stack two quick holds. |
Originally Posted by Quixotik
I would like to add however that there is nothing that TA does that isn't done by most other Defense sets, but those Defense sets also get a Heal of some type, usually a very good heal. TA seems to be weighted to using Oil Slick Arrow in place of a Heal. OSA is nice when and if it actually works, but TA needs better mitigation or HP replacer nonetheless. It is surely never going to get a Heal so I'll pitch the idea of Ice Arrow getting a 50% chance to apply and additional mag 2 Hold. If TA is supposed to be the offensive defense set it is touted as it needs to be special in that way and not just mold itself after defense sets with heals. |
I think I've given up on Trick Arrow for now. It is a very busy set because you have to shoot so many arrows to make up for all the debuffs that other sets can do under 3-4s. I actually don't think Archery fits Trick Arrow that well. For one, Explosion Arrow may knock mobs out of Disruption Arrow range. For two, Stun Shot can't stack with Ice Arrow. The only reason people would combo Archery/TA together is for theme or for reducing weapon draw. Other than that, this theme is pretty bad IMO. To give you an example, if you are Archery/Storm, /Dark or /Cold, you can cast Freezing Arrow/Tar Patch out of sight and then fire off Rain of Arrow out of sight.
And three, if you want to light up Oil Slick Arrow, you have to waste your strongest attack Blazing Arrow. In that case, Fire/Arrow could be better.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Archery/Trick Arrow is one of the zenith's of roleplay in CoX. It's weaknesses are well known, so 'probably' the only reason you take Trick Arrow is to pair with Archery.
The problem is TA is modeled after Defense sets with HEALS and does nothing special except Oil Slick Arrow which (actually only works 10-20% of the time) and takes way to long to aquire, level 26 or 35. In truth most other Defense sets do almost the same thing as TA with fewer activations... and they get a Heal too. So Devs, why did you make a Defense set with no Heals and nothing over-the-top to help players counter this when soloing? 
As for stacking Holds, my Ice Blaster can do that easily in 3 to 4 seconds at level 26 and can also slot 7 "Chance to Hold" IO's, ensuring everthing is held and stays that way, but of course Power Boost handles that already. My Ice Blaster also gets Build-Up, and my Ice/Ice Blaster gets stacking Slows and perma-AoE Knockdown instead of Power Boost. Surely TA can be modified a bit to help the player solo levels without breaking CoX or TA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLr...eature=related
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
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But you are wearing a bow all the time!!|
Originally Posted by Quixotik
The problem is TA is modeled after Defense sets with HEALS and does nothing special except Oil Slick Arrow which (actually only works 10-20% of the time) and takes way to long to aquire, level 26 or 35. In truth most other Defense sets do almost the same thing as TA with fewer activations... and they get a Heal too. So Devs, why did you make a Defense set with no Heals and nothing over-the-top to help players counter this when soloing?
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My defender TA/A is 50! I never played solo.
I tried hard (for cape/aura mission). After faceplanting 3 times, I came to the conclusion that this character was a team player specialized in laying AOE wrath from range for the team
and now I am a happy mob annihilator OSA, Rain, Explosive arrow, AOE debuffs all around the place. My teammates don't notice how safe I make each of the encounters.Sadly, what works very well in teams does not when solo.
I really wished they would reduce the recharge on OSA.
Um, oil slick works 100% of the time, just thought I would mention that. TA is a very late blooming set. I love my 50 TA/Arch defender. The oil slick was fixed with Going Rogue finally after all these years.
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Eh... you do know that half of defender's primary sets do not have a heal right? And even then only 3 of those have anything that you can actually call a good heal.
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Originally Posted by Quixotik
The problem is TA is modeled after Defense sets with HEALS and does nothing special except Oil Slick Arrow which (actually only works 10-20% of the time) and takes way to long to aquire, level 26 or 35.
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Most Defense sets offer very good damage mitigation in some way. Either a heal or damage resistance or defense or combination with some good control powers. My FF Defender has no Heal but rarely takes that much damage... unless it's PvP, but that's a seperate issue. |
Originally Posted by Tangler
Eh... you do know that half of defender's primary sets do not have a heal right? And even then only 3 of those have anything that you can actually call a good heal.
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My point is TA has little effective damage mitigation. Now if TA could fire several effects with one arrow, that might do it, but TA will never change that much. TA just needs something to make it more solo-able. Teams are great, but you don't always have one and the game's mission arcs are directed at one player. My TA/Archery Defender is level 43 and has only completed a half dozen story arcs. Most contacts have never even been contacted and that is probably fairly common for TA. No powerset should be that weak.
And, great Ceasar's ghost!!, Oil Slick Arrow is working. Amazing!
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
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Can you post up the build for your archer? Something seems very wrong. My TA/Arch is level 50 and I've played him both solo and in teams with few of the problems you've mentioned.
| My TA/Archery Defender is level 43 and has only completed a half dozen story arcs. |
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# Archery/Trick Arrow (All) - Cast Time and Animation Changes
* Explosive Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
* Stunning Shot cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
* Flash Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
* Ice Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.67s
# Archery/Trick Arrow (All) - Improved the lighting reliability of Oil Slick Arrow.
Ware ni tatenu mono mashi!!
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The 43 TA/Archery Defender can solo Boss missions because it has a very good second Hold power from the Epic powersets. EMP Arrow solves the rest. Prior to the Epics most ranged bosses slaughtered it.... unless it had a pile of purple insp.|
Originally Posted by Crimson_Archer_EU
Can you post up the build for your archer? Something seems very wrong. My TA/Arch is level 50 and I've played him both solo and in teams with few of the problems you've mentioned.
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My Corrupter Arch/TA is only 22. I have Bosses turned off (nice you can spoon feed the missions now) but it usually gets slaughtered on the new missions involving clones and Tip/Morality missions. It's funny, my MM and my Brute did all these Tip/Morality missions and, when soloing, had the settings for +1 level, Bosses on, for two players and were only defeated once, due to my mistake. The Archery/TA has Bosses off, same level, 1 player and gets faceplanted at all the parts that are supposed to be exciting, and they are some nicely scripted missions. Just too beaucoup for Archery/TA.
Maybe TA needs a special inherent that spawns 4 purple insp. when bosses appear?
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
Just wanted to post this up real quick regarding the design philosophy of bosses. This is from waaay back when and for the most part this hasn't changed:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...highlight=boss
Bosses do not spawn when you are solo unless you change the difficulty setting (which was added way later in the life cycle of the game).
Also, you should realize that we here on the forums take soloing Bosses, EBs and AVs as things a character should do. We have higher expectation on our characters than others.
The majority of players, or the majority that don't come on the forums, don't really try to do this. They just get on a team and have fun.
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Maybe Archery needs a better secondary effect.
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Originally Posted by Quixotik
Maybe TA needs a special inherent that spawns 4 purple insp. when bosses appear?
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I was just thinking, maybe Corrupter/Defender damage needs to be buffed. Masterminds get many of the best Defense sets and do extreme damage too. They have a few less HP's, but just switch their pets to Defense/Follow and they become mini-tanks.
Anyway, MM's are excellent team defenders and they do high/widespread damage, and, it hasn't caused CoX to explode. Maybe a guideline for other team defender AT damage lies in MM's?
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That is certainly true also. It seems Archery and Trick Arrow is actually the worst pairing of possible powersets. Ice Blast/Trick Arrow would have no problems with any mission, for instance.|
Originally Posted by Luminara
Maybe Archery needs a better secondary effect.
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I remember one of my old suggestions for Archery was to change Aim to a Poison buff that effects attacks with a secondary effect along with the To Hit and Damage buff. That would be in line with the RP of an Archer.
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
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There's at least one moral choice mission in Praetoria which requires you to kill an Elite Boss and explicitly does not allow you to team.
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Originally Posted by joebartender
This
Never seen a mission that contains an AV or EB that doesnt contain the "you may need to get some help" info in the mission text. Bosses have to be enabled by a player period now. In the past on the default solo setting bosses didnt spawn either. |
Can anyone post here Arch/TA builds that run well? I have a 50 Def. ARCH/TA, and I love 'em. He was not the best for soloing, but still decent. I'm trying the corruptor now, have him to 48, but think it can be improved.
Deeds not Words....
My solution was to skip travel powers and fitness and take the two Heals from Medicine. With the heal I can usually outlast the Bosses and Heal Other is nice for teams who expect you to have a heal, even though it's a very modest heal.
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
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The mission in question (if it's the one I'm thinking of) usually spawns a LT for me, solo. If it doesn't for you bug it, as that shouldn't be.
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Originally Posted by Reiska
There's at least one moral choice mission in Praetoria which requires you to kill an Elite Boss and explicitly does not allow you to team.
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Originally Posted by joebartender
This
Never seen a mission that contains an AV or EB that doesnt contain the "you may need to get some help" info in the mission text. |
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Dr._Forr...om_Widdershins
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So getting back to trying to answer the original questions:
1) No, don't shelve your Arch/TA. Instead take a look at it from a different perspective and how you're playing it because it can be a very powerful toon. Luminara has a great guide in the Defender section on this which might help.
2) Yes, they can solo same level bosses as well as anyone else. Arch/TA often takes more strategy though than just "blast-blast-blast-until-dead" mentality. There's definitely lots of jumping around.