The Most Anti-Team Character
By
Aliana Blue,
Posted on: 2011-02-24 14:18 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Clave,
They are the best for getting the job done, no muss, no fuss. Just because they are great at getting things done doesn't mean that they are the easiest to level. In this game killing alot is the easiest way to level, and for that Scrappers for ATs and Night Widows for EATs are the easiest to level solo.
Pyrthas,
They may not kill viability completely, but they are a waste most of the time that you are playing. And when you are on a team, you have to play your toon in a completely different manner that takes away the advantages that would be built into having the toon built for solo-play.
Nyx,
I Night Widow is great, except their stealth sucks. Trollers are great for solo, but because they are so gimped in the realm of damage, they come in second behind Stalkers for solo-play.
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Sorry. I don't get it. It's really hard to gimp a Night Widow. Desperately hard. Considdering only a few Stalker sets are generally solid a viable, I have to say a Night Widow is much more efficient.|
Originally Posted by Beelzy
Nyx,
I Night Widow is great, except their stealth sucks. Trollers are great for solo, but because they are so gimped in the realm of damage, they come in second behind Stalkers for solo-play. |
For instance, I smoke bomb everything, essentially making my stealth an invis but with debuff to hit procs specced into it, I am not getting hit.
That combined with max defenses provided by the training skills and foresight and I am not getting hit by anything. The Stealth is perhaps not as stong as the Stalkers but throw a bomb and you essentially walk up to bosses and get the strike in with a critical.
A stalker can be interupted and AOE will take them out of stealth, and after that we have a stalker in a very dangerous situation. If my widow is forced out of stealth she will still out do a stalker everytime for damage AOE versatility and because mine is a hybrid, I easy have range to follow suit.
While I respect the damage ability of a Stalkers Assassin stike, my Night Widow can do all of the same tricks (Placate etc) but do it betterm more efficently and stealth contrary to popular belief is not invulnerablitiy, and once it's gone, the difference between my Widow and a Stalker is that I don't need to run away, and the most annoying thing about some stalker players is the constant "did my thing and my assassins strike, Placated, did it again and now I run like heck"
My widow can do it, AOE Critical entire bunch, blinded mobs and then stick around to fight not worrying about if she is seen...she likes to be seen. Heck, I even through a Damage prock for PbAoe that converts her toxic lethal combo into a chance to inflict energy damage. Single Target, or mass targets, it simply does not matter.
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I don't quite get this, either. Three points. First, if you're soloing "most of the time that you are playing," FF and Sonic might not be the best choices. Especially Sonic—over half the powers are ally-only!|
Originally Posted by Beelzy
They may not kill viability completely, but they are a waste most of the time that you are playing. And when you are on a team, you have to play your toon in a completely different manner that takes away the advantages that would be built into having the toon built for solo-play.
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But that's a minor point. A larger point is that your first post suggested that taking the individual shields was a huge sacrifice, and it isn't. It's two powers and four or six slots. I'm confident that there are very few builds that will be severely hampered by losing two power choices and four or six slots.
Maybe you're building and playing your bubblers very differently than I am. For my part, though, my solo and team play is remarkably similar. Solo, I mostly spam aoes and hit soul drain on recharge. On a team, I mostly spam aoes, hit soul drain on recharge, and throw bubbles on everybody once every four minutes. That's honestly not much of a simplification. I used to mess around with the kb stuff a bit, but I could almost always be better served by throwing out more damage, so that fell by the wayside.
And finally, your first post said that you can contribute in different ways to a team if you don't take the individual shields. That's probably strictly true, but, again, all you're gaining are two powers and four or six slots. I'm not at all convinced that that's going to buy you anything really substantial, especially on a team. The point I was trying to make, which you seemed to not address, was that, contra what your post suggested, taking and slotting the shields is only a minor sacrifice when soloing, and a huge boon on teams.
Nyx, I agree with you, except insofar as Stalkers are a completely different playstyle. I can finish almost any mission faster with a Stalker than with a Night Widow, the exception being kill alls and AVs. But the survivability inherent in the stealth of Stalkers makes them a great deal more powerful as a solo AT than Night Widows.
Pyrthas, some people just don't enjoy playing buffbots. That being said, the two sets are not ideal for solo play. But can be useful if matched with a strong primary. In which case you will be taking almost every power from the primary, plus your pool powers and that leaves little room for the powers that are useless 90% of the time.
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I have played a few Stalkers. A DB/Dark and a DB/Nin Perhaps thats why I dont find this.|
Originally Posted by Beelzy
Nyx, I agree with you, except insofar as Stalkers are a completely different playstyle. I can finish almost any mission faster with a Stalker than with a Night Widow, the exception being kill alls and AVs. But the survivability inherent in the stealth of Stalkers makes them a great deal more powerful as a solo AT than Night Widows.
Pyrthas, some people just don't enjoy playing buffbots. That being said, the two sets are not ideal for solo play. But can be useful if matched with a strong primary. In which case you will be taking almost every power from the primary, plus your pool powers and that leaves little room for the powers that are useless 90% of the time. |
On the same token I thought about it, and truthfully, I think the only reason why I considder the Widow is because I find her playstyle more fitting.
Perhaps it has nothing to do with the stalker, perhaps it's the player playing. some people have the skill to play a stalker and maybe I am not one of them.
So If I was being sort of snarky about the efficiency of a Widow over a Stalker I think it would be because I find the Widow has more versatility for me Solo than a Stalker, but again I speak of playstyles, not actual abilities of those behind the keyboard working with a stalker
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I wouldn't say it is as much about skill as goals and playstyle. I like to get my five alignment missions finished in the half an hour I usually get to play each day. I can do that on my stalker a great deal easier than on my widow.
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Originally Posted by Nyx
I have played a few Stalkers. A DB/Dark and a DB/Nin Perhaps thats why I dont find this.
On the same token I thought about it, and truthfully, I think the only reason why I considder the Widow is because I find her playstyle more fitting. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the stalker, perhaps it's the player playing. some people have the skill to play a stalker and maybe I am not one of them. So If I was being sort of snarky about the efficiency of a Widow over a Stalker I think it would be because I find the Widow has more versatility for me Solo than a Stalker, but again I speak of playstyles, not actual abilities of those behind the keyboard working with a stalker |
Scouts. Imagine a Stalker that doesn't attack, just stealths to the objective and waits.
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
Come on guys, knocking things back is such uncreative greifing.
I'm voting for an ice tanker with no auras, a ton of recharage on hibernate, stealth, and team teleport.
Gather your whole team, then team teleport in, immediately queuing hibernate. If they don't die, teleport the entire team into another group then another, then back to the first just to disorient them. By then hibernate will hopefully be recharged.
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I remember seeing the occasional stalkers do that, back in ye olden tymes. All it takes is one and people goes into their stalker-hatin' mode... It always annoyed me because I like stalkers.
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Originally Posted by Starflier
Scouts. Imagine a Stalker that doesn't attack, just stealths to the objective and waits.
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Put me on the list for KB. Yes, I know it's great mitigation....for you oh spammer of Gale, Hurricaner of nicely bunched mobs, Mr. Energy Torrent opener, and Maximus Spreadicus.
Also on my list of Anti-Team toons......controllers or dominators who OPEN with large cone/aoe immobilizing powers. Making everyone's AOE/Cone/Aura powers less effective. Especially when they think they are somehow a major contributor of damage....but instead become aggro magnets so supports toons have to coddle you. FYI - everything doesn't HAVE to be fire-caged.
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Using Stone Cages on top of Ice Slick is okay when the mobs are stunned/held/totally debuffed, especially if the cages are slotted for damage and not immobilization. But, you're right, if they're fighting back it kind of defeats the purpose of Ice Slick.|
Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
[I should note he was but 1 of 4 different Earth Controllers/Doms encountered within a 5 hour period who had cage addiction. Seek help when your illicit habits lead to wanton death and teammates getting creamed by PPD.]
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I used to whine about other team members and their power choices. I've since come to just accept it and work with it. All the powers are in the game for a legitimate reason, even if they're sometimes used incorrectly. Usually asking someone using Gale to use it to knock the mobs into a corner or against a wall is sufficient.
I've got a grav/FF, though, and I have to admit it that it's the most painful character to play that I've had. It's tedious because you have to buff the team all the time, and Wormhole is just plain badly designed. It's a great concept, but the implementation is about 95% wrong. It's stuck at level 43 and I predict hitting level 50 in 2025 unless they fix Gravity before then.
The most impatient I've ever been was on a small team run by a /Dev blaster who insisted on using two or three mines on every spawn. Bo-o-o-oring...
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Other than VEATS
A controller is the best solo class in my experience. Doms are also Excellent