BellaStrega
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Posts
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Joined
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I would simply like something that speeds up soloing.
Edit: Seldom - the stacked buff argument is a red herring because controllers and corruptors are capable of exactly the same thing. How many times do I have to make this point?
It's not a red herring because defenders can't do it. Of course they can. It's because three other ATs can do it too, two of them nearly as well as defenders, and one of them does significantly more damage with higher base damage + scourge. -
Quote:This. Really, this wasn't the place for that because it refers almost entirely to conversations Silas and I have had in tells.Originally Posted by Stray Kitten
You're probably taking that conversation a bit too seriously. >.>
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Just to add:
Should I mention that my farm map is a big outdoor Carnie map?
That's just about the only place in the game where my end gets stretched to the limit as is, and only then when I get the mask of vitiation. damned mask! -
Quote:I can't delete her, I already moved her to Virtue.Originally Posted by Silas
Doooo it, dooooo it, doooo it.
Aaand, well and truly derailed! -
Quote:I leveled that tanker to 41 in issue 4. I quit playing her in issue 5. I had planned on deleting her, but never got around to it.Originally Posted by Silas
!
You hussy! How could you?!?
Edit: while your firedark corr languishes as a lowbie, no less. I am shocked, appalled and outraged. In that precise order. -
Quote:You must know about the level 41 tanker I already have...Originally Posted by Silas
We can't be friends anymore.
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I got invited twice with a tanker I made the other day.
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Yeah, tankers are strong soloers due to their moderately high damage and extremely high defense. While defenders have some of that defense solo, they don't have the damage. Soloing the two is miles apart.
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Happy birthday, Dinah.
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Quote:Game changing for what? Any combination of 8 defenders, controllers, or corruptors will utterly trivialize anything they set out to do right now. This is a red herring.Originally Posted by Seldom
This was actually what I meant by my comment about min/maxed defender teams. If it slightly improves the performance of solo doms, an 8-member rad/ team will make it game-changing.
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Quote:Sonic and Trick Arrow have single target -res, which may not be an issue, but...corruptors have these tools too.Originally Posted by Seldom
Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but I'm pretty sure that every defender primary but empathy and forcefields can boost damage somehow via + damage or -resistance.
I don't think I believe they're the most balanced archetype. I think that right there may be the source of much of the disagreement here.Quote:The fact that defenders are "the most balanced archetype" means, realistically, defenders will not get a straight up damage boost, as does their greater weakening/boost ability. As such, if there are overall performance issues I think it's better to look in a different direction and see what could be done to improve the archetype that the game developers might look into.
And I'm not sure that asking for a buff that won't really help much is going to make things better when you're on teams with two ATs that outperform you instead of just one. -
Quote:Now, the .75 + scourge is a much larger difference in practice than it is on paper. I'm not sure boosting defenders to .7 (as an example) would break the game...or giving defenders some other way to buff damage.Originally Posted by Seldom
I realize this, it's the same issue I have as well. But to be honest, my suggestion is simply a balancing one. They have lower damage then corruptors and controllers and masterminds? One direction is to make them kill faster. The other is to make them tougher. I went to option 2, as I just don't think option #1 is happening.
Defenders have a .65 multiplier, corruptors are .75 with cream on top. The numbers are too close, and the devs seem too happy with them to shift those. The mulipliers defenders have skew them too quickly as well., for those with primaries that skew orange numbers...and those are part of the equation.
And corruptors have pretty strong multipliers as well - not as strong as defenders, but again, scourge.
I do tend to think that defender ability to boost damage on some powersets is overstated, esp given that on teams that damage boosting affects the entire team, meaning that you're not ever going to see defenders outdamaging damage-focused ATs. And stacking defenders is an edge case that should not define the entire AT (and doesn't, because stacking them now is ridiculously OP). -
Balancing controllers by making them suck from 1-31 isn't balance, it just makes for a really poor experience leveling to 32. This is explicitly (as in was stated by a dev) one of the reasons controllers have containment.
People will still play defenders and invite defenders to teams, but I've found that people tend to ask for defenders or controllers - and with GR, Corruptors will be added to that list. Come GR, I think you'll see far more corruptors being played than defenders, whether or not you personally will choose to continue with your own defenders.
Also, the existence of rad/sonic or dark/dark or good soloists, but that doesn't really balance the entire AT, no more than Fire/Kin and Ill/Rad controllers balance that AT (if they did, there'd probably be no containment). -
My problem soloing my defender isn't a lack of resilience, it's that it takes so long that I gave up and only play her on teams.
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Quote:So are tankers, controllers, blasters, peacebringers, and warshades.Originally Posted by Zamuel
Not sure on that since they are rather explicitly intended to be a team based class.
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Quote:I should have left the paragraph I wrote in there refuting this point about 8 defenders:Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
You can argue this one either way since it is extremely situational. Solo a defender is pretty low in effectiveness but a team of 8 Defenders is one of the most effective out there (assuming a reasonable mix of primaries). The primary issue with suggestions for boosting Defender damage do partly come down to the fact that a Defender only take is horribly OP for anything except AVS (and even then they can take down most of them).
You can stack defenders, controllers, and corruptors to fairly similar results. If you boost defender damage to make soloing easier (esp. for those with primaries that don't boost damage, like Emp, FF, or Sonic), you're not going to make life significantly or probably even noticeably easier for teams of 8 defenders. I don't even see why people bring up the 8 defender teams, because there's no way for 8 buffers/debuffers to be anything but ridiculously overpowered, and by the same measure, controllers, corruptors, and masterminds need a nerf to bring their damage into line when you stack 8 of them together in any combination.
I do realize that the other three ATs have lower buff/debuff numbers, but that's fundamentally irrelevant when you stack enough of them. -
Quote:I'll disagree that defenders are balanced relative to heroic ATs. Defender damage was balanced against blaster damage at launch. Every AT has received damage buffs since then, while defenders have not. I think this pretty clearly leaves them slightly underpowered.Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
I don't necessarily disagree that Defenders are balanced in relation to the Blueside ATs and as a Buff/Damage they are good (although some controllers can give them a run for their money) but I don't think that they are balanced in relation to Corruptors and with Going Rogue this will become more obvious.
I agree with this.Quote:Finally I'll note that Vigilance was introduced between Issues 5 and 6. Even given that Defenders were balanced without needing an inherent THEN the game has changed a lot in the ten issues since then so i'm not convinced that is still the case. -
What bothers me about the resistance cap as it exists today is that the reduced cap for every AT but tankers (and later brutes) was implemented primarily because of defense.
Or specifically, Invulnerability's ability to easily cap defense with Invincibility. People rightly saw how invuln scrappers could survive just about anything by cutting incoming damage down to 1% of potential actual damage or less (depending on saturation and target's base accuracy), and rather than fix Invincibility, resistance was nerfed.
Fire was similarly able to get fairly high durability, not because of its resists, but because of the ability to stack defense from weave, combat jumping, hasten over those resists.
Sorry about the digression, there.
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Quote:As I said above, it got a lot of use in the 80s. I mean, I heard it used as a racist slur on a fairly frequent basis.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Out of curiosity, where/when is/was "dink" in common usage as an ethnic slur? While i've seen and heard it used on rare occasion to mean dumb, or the more common "dinky", meaning small, i have never seen it used anywhere in a racist context.
Then again, terms like "gypped" and "Jerry-rigged" are derived from racist terms as well even though many probably don't know it. -
It got a lot of mileage in the 80s.
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Have defenders ever had a damage boost? Every other heroside AT has had their damage buffed in the past - scrappers got criticals and a 12.5% boost. Tankers were boosted from .7 to .8 scale. Blasters got the same 12.5% that scrappers got. Controllers got their inherent.
I'm just thinking that this and Vigilance have an impact on how fun it is to play a defender. I don't think they need a power boost, but I think they could use a bit of a review. -
Quote:Well, I think my own expertise has fallen a bit behind. I need to play DA more, maybe level it up again.Originally Posted by Desmodos
That's quite the compliment, thank you.
I've had such long breaks that I just got my 45 month vet reward.Quote:I'm currently on a self imposed hiatus from CoH until Going Rogue. Basically my way warding off burn out. 
15 months behind where I should be, at the least.
Well, I do find currently, that I need additional end management on Rikti mothership raids, and that's with unique +rec IOs and stamina, although I know I don't need both Dark Consumption and Conserve Power...which is a holdover from issue 4 for me, really.Quote:Physical Perfection was introduced after this guide was written and after my hiatus began. I haven't actually tested it yet. My particular DM/DA character is married to Darkness Mastery for her epic power pool; strictly for concept reasons, so she'll never use it.
There are so many tools for managing endurance now a days, it's scarcely an issue. I would think anyone pursuing Physical Perfection would give up a few of the endurance management alternatives and pursue other bonuses instead, particularly defense or recharge.
I don't need both of those. I also do like a bit of regen, although I'm sure it's not precisely needed. -
Good guide! Thanks for writing it.
I really appreciate the IO builds, simply because I have not kept up with IO state of the art.
Just a question:
DM/DA with Stamina + Physical Perfection + the usual end-buffing slotting - overkill? I like the additional regen and recovery, but is that overdoing it? -
Yeah, I've met several players who are elitist about certain powersets too, and many who still carry impressions of what those powersets are like from the game's first year.
I don't care how many level 50s anyone has, if they don't play DA, or they only play it long enough to get annoyed with it and quit, I don't care what they think, really.
And yeah, I don't know what you did, but it's possible, even easy, to play DA without massive end issues, so you did it wrong. DA's biggest actual problem is the lack of KB protection, and that's easily covered by easily obtainable IOs.
If you don't like the powerset, there's nothing wrong with that, but trying to blame the powerset because you couldn't play it when it's both quite playable and fairly effective is a bit silly. -
After having seen so many stories on Guild Wars Guru, this doesn't surprise me in the least.