A lot of people underestimate the mitigation values of caltrops. You can turn an entire spawn of enemies in an AI-addled mess. They spend more time trying to get out of the patch, and less time trying to kill you.
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As a DAMAGE power, it certainly is (worthless).|
Originally Posted by BrandX
but Caltrops seems so...worthless.
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As a CONTROL power, it most certainly is NOT (worthless).
Caltrops is an AREA DENIAL power, not a Damage power (although it can be loaded up with procs that do damage, if you've got the slots for it).
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It isn't a damage AoE, and it will mess with your placate bad if the enemy is in it... but it's useful on other ways.
Caltrops + A corner = Instant easy escape.
Caltrops + A Large mob = Confused enemies
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I've noticed the bit of control it gives, in that the masses run about instead of attack. It's jsut, right now I'm at 37% Defense across the board right now, so that could be why I'm not seeing the need for the scatter, especially with Blinding Powder coming up, it seems like it would be a better control power.|
Originally Posted by Redlynne
As a DAMAGE power, it certainly is (worthless).
As a CONTROL power, it most certainly is NOT (worthless). Caltrops is an AREA DENIAL power, not a Damage power (although it can be loaded up with procs that do damage, if you've got the slots for it). |
Not worried about the AOE damage as I have plent in my Primary.
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It also comes in very handy for ambushes. Drop it at a corner and watch them act like buffoons running back and forth on the patch as you take them apart.
"the reason there are so many sarcastic pvpers is we already had a better version of pvp taken away from us to appease bad players. Back then we chuckled at how bad players came here and whined. If we knew that was the actual voice devs would listen to instead of informed, educated players we probably would have been bigger dicks back then." -ConFlict
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In my opinion, at least, it really isn't. Blinding Powder is a base 120s recharge and gives a 12s mag2 sleep and 50% chance of 24s mag 2 confuse. For control that's pretty weak. Its main benefit for a stalker near the softcap is the -7.5% tohit debuff on a power that doesn't aggro the spawn or cancel Hide. So it's great for prepping them prior to your attack. Or at least those that are close enough to fit within the short range cone. And yeah, it'll take some of the minions out of the fight with the mag 2 controls but they weren't much of a threat to you to begin with. It gets better at 50 with the Contagious Confusion proc causing overlapping confuses that might then affect LTs and bosses (rarely). |
Originally Posted by BrandX
I've noticed the bit of control it gives, in that the masses run about instead of attack. It's jsut, right now I'm at 37% Defense across the board right now, so that could be why I'm not seeing the need for the scatter, especially with Blinding Powder coming up, it seems like it would be a better control power.
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By contrast Caltrops is a mag 50 "afraid". It affects anything not specifically immune which means you'll even have many EBs dancing on your 'trops only attacking you half the time. Put a single slow enhancer in it and most stuff not immune to slow will have difficulty getting off the 'trops patch, which means they won't really scatter all that quickly if that's what you're worried about. Thrown in front of an ambush it does the opposite, in fact. Takes a whole strung-out line of ambushers and piles them into each other for AoE devastation. It's also perma... out of the box. Any recharge, enhancement or global, will allow you some overlap so you can stack or spread a couple patches.
In the past I've single-handedly kept entire team-sized ambushes away from the rest of the group at "inconvenient" times just by keeping a few caltrops patches out. And they say Stalkers aren't team friendly?
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So far enjoying the set. However, truthfully, maybe it's because I've gotten plenty of defense early on, but Caltrops seems so...worthless.
Also the tier 9, looking it over, it's likely just mean, but I'd rather see it become something akin to being used more often with lower +Defense, without the end drain/-recovery so I could use it as more of a travel and less of a OH NO button.
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