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Bill Z Bubba

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  1. Bill Z Bubba
    My opinion of FA hasn't changed a bit. Unless you've always got some buffer slamming you with DR and Def shields, FA's mitigation is pathetic outside of burn farms.
  2. Bill Z Bubba
    Yea, it's much more fun to do when I have star or the team leader agrees with me.
  3. Bill Z Bubba
    Here's what I can tell you about my EM/FA brute. He was my first villain. My first villain to 50. He's the only villain I've gotten all the accolades for.

    I deleted and rerolled him as a dark/wp.

    Between the insanely long cast times for EM's big hitters and FA's extreme squishiness outside of burn farms... I just couldn't take it.
  4. Bill Z Bubba
    I know. the entire opinion is ridiculous. This game has loads of powersets doing knockback. And loads of people whining about it. You know what I do when someone on my team whines about knockback? I target them, turn on fly, hit follow and put shockwave on auto. Then I go have a smoke.
  5. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Redlynne View Post
    You do realize that suppressed toggles still cost endurance ... even though they aren't doing anything for you ...?
    Which is why the devs have always shot this idea down. It WON'T happen. Period.
  6. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    At best KB isn't TOO hurtful against NPCs that have melee preferences, but otherwise it's not helpful. Sorry if that offends you, but it's true.
    I've used shockwave to push enemies into burn/ice/tar/etc patches. Therefore, KB has a practical use.

    Of course, when it's coming from a pbaoe that spews the enemies surrounding you off in all directions, it loses that directional purpose. Or you waste half of the circle trying to use it in a directional manner.

    You're both being ridiculous, by the way.
  7. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Antares_NA View Post
    I wanna see Bill Z Bubba!!!
    Much has stayed the same. Didn't have any screenshots so I went off of memory.

    Then:

    Now:
  8. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    It might be interesting to see what some of the numbers are for the lower recharges.
    The answer to that is pretty straight forward. As recharge levels go down, the set with more usable AoEs pulls ahead.
  9. Bill Z Bubba
    I'm doing it wrong as well. Still haven't set up the binds. Hell, my current build can't spam that chain. I doubt most farming builds can. 300% recharge ain't easy. My claws/sr only has 317% in followup and that was a nightmare to get.
  10. Bill Z Bubba

    LAMDA bites

    POST-ACTION

    Running Lambda gets you incarnate stuff. Stuff that makes you less squishy.

    I died a fair amount on my uber multi-billion inf main claws/sr. Now I can solo the crates and canisters without breathing hard.

    I fail to see the problem here.
  11. Bill Z Bubba
    Oh yea, here's my biggest wish: give Kheldians access to Air Superiority.
  12. Bill Z Bubba
    Point of order about Kheldians and mez protection:

    The AT does offer it at 20 with dwarf form. Yes, it's clunky. Yes, it sometimes fails to function properly. Form shifting has always been problematic and time consuming. But it's there, nonetheless.

    And now every kheldian can have permanent mez protection thanks to the incarnate powers. Does it help before 50? Nope. But it's there for those that want it.

    My WS and my PB are currently human-only. When my PB hits 20, she'll get dwarf form and I'll slot it up to full capacity. If she hits 50 again I'll dump dwarf, get the incarnate mez protection and go back to human only.

    Would I happily take mez protection in the toggles? Hell yea.
    Would I happily take the inherent getting nerfed so that our base damage and mitigation scalers can be buffed? Hell yea.
    Would I take a reduction on form shifting animation times? Yes, 1000 times, yes please.

    I'm not holding my breath for any of it.
  13. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    and they all do what they're suppose to do better than kheld.
    This has always been the crux of the argument for the last 6+ years.

    Look at the Kheldian design in its entirety. It was DESIGNED to be a game leader's AT. A khel was supposed to log in and immediately build a team of 8 and lead it. When they were first put in the game they had a -30 dam-res debuff on them when solo. Dwarf form didn't act as a breakfree.

    Khels were supposed to be run by players players that had tactical intelligence, sharp wits and a desire to lead large scale team action.

    They were NEVER supposed to be solo.

    Yes, this entire concept was dumb, but it explains much about how Khels function. Looking at what changes have occurred to Khels since go live and then looking at how the VEATs were designed, bringing a lot to a team but can also solo without issue, shows us that the devs realized what a mistake they had made.

    I don't know who is running the show on the powers team these days. I don't know if they have any intention of making any changes to any existing powersets. Game balance seems to have little meaning these days.
  14. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    Claws blaster.

    Really. Loads of fun.
    I ran a claws/sr blaster for a while. It was after ED/GDN and before SR got buffed again. Really had no choice due to just how painfully squishy SR was during that period. Focus, shockwave, dark blast and tenebrous tentacles.
  15. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Amy_Amp View Post
    Interesting because I was wondering how useful it is with Fury and popping reds so much if it was really adding value. I still did three runs on my level 12 and ended up at 18.5. I did one at x3, x5, and then x8. Next goal is to get to level 22, upgrade enhancements, and start upping the diff level wise.
    This is at 50 and if you can get enough reds to stay cranked. Totally different ride than what you do while leveling up in there.
  16. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ultrawatt View Post
    Uh, Bill thats not a very good attack chain for SS, I tend you use ball>FS>fences>Burn with insp/fe/etc filling any gap, which i generally dont run into myself. And dont forget the freakishly awesome FF+rech proc that SS can get.
    The cast time of KO Blow covers the gap as mentioned. Do whatever with the pauses, it doesn't really change much. And the order doesn't matter at all over time.
  17. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Primantiss View Post
    Wait, what? Why can't a claws brute choose stone secondary? Problem with claw attachments on Granite?
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BrandX View Post
    Yup
    Specifically, BAB thought that granite doing the eviscerate flip looked ridiculous.

    And yet he never thought eviscerate looked ridiculous on its own like I do....
  18. Bill Z Bubba
    DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

    Just the way I like it.
  19. Bill Z Bubba
    Here's what I have learned: Redraw kills. And followup shouldn't be bothered with while farming.



    KO Blow is in there because even at 300% recharge, there's a large pause without it. Might as well beat up a boss instead of doing nothing, right?

    Notice that lack of followup for claws? The more I used it, the more redraw caused issues. So I replaced it with Eviscerate.

    Without any damage buffs, claws wins.
    At the damage cap, claws wins.
    For a standard run where you're eating some insps but not a lot and SS has either single stacked fury, single for 1 minute, double for the 2nd, or even double stacked through the whole thing with a crash in the middle, SS should win.

    Let's find out.
    Blazing aura is going to add 4.56 DPS for 120 seconds that goes to 550.8 damage.

    As pointed out by others, and tested by me, Fiery Embrace adds 45% of an attack's total damage in fire damage to that that attack. Damage cap be damned. The numbers are stating that FE has a base recharge of 3 minutes and 300% recharge drops it to 45 seconds. It lasts 20 seconds. At best, you'll get two rounds with it during a 2 minute run. 40 seconds out of 120 seconds for +45% damage. Just take the final amount and multiply it by 1.15 (1/3 of 45) and call it a day.

    SS base 2min damage, BA, FE:
    (26985.42 + 550.8) * 1.15 = 31667

    Claws base 2min damage, BA, FE:
    (27440.01 + 550.8) * 1.15 = 32189

    Claws. 150% fury, 95% enhancement, BA, FE:
    (94668.035 + 1900.26) * 1.15 = 111054

    SS, 80% rage, 150% fury, 95% enhancement, BA, FE:
    (114688.035 + 2340.9) * 1.15 = 134583

    SS, 80% rage minute 1, 160% rage minute 2, 150% fury, 95% enhancement BA, FE:
    (125482.203 + 2561.22) * 1.15 = 147250

    SS, double rage, single crash, 150% fury, 95% enhancement, BA, FE:
    (124920.00675 + 2549.745) * 1.15 = 146590

    SS w/ BA and FE Damage Cap:
    269167

    Claws w/ BA and FE Damage Cap:
    273610

    End outcome? Claws wins at the cap. For most everywhere in between, SS wins.
  20. Bill Z Bubba
    Actually, without the base value changes, and due to the nerf fury received not too long ago, scrapper/brute damage over time would be dang near identical.
  21. Bill Z Bubba
    Roger that. Might be something to edit out if you ever rewrite it and just mention the superiority of restore essence over awakens.
  22. Bill Z Bubba
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psiphon View Post
    Out of interest why is better on Brute than a Scrapper and by how much?
    It's not really by much in the grand scheme of things. When claws got ported over, the base damage, recharge, end costs were all bumped a bit meaning that the overall DPS was increased.

    Looking back at my single target DPS spreadsheets, we're really only talking about a 5-10% increase.
  23. Bill Z Bubba
    What are you comparing it to? Claws/spin is almost broken it's so good as an aoe. Throwing in eviscerate and shockwave, spawns should be falling to pieces for you.
  24. Bill Z Bubba
    claws/elec won't have to deal with the kb hold of fire and dark and it'll have the damage aura to get buffed by followup.
  25. Bill Z Bubba
    Timeshadow,

    I read your guide and something jumped out at me:

    Quote:
    Restore Essence is one of those powers. Some people dislike self-rezzes. Their philosophy is, “What good is a power if I have to be dead to use it? Besides, I carry Awakens.” While Awakens are all well and good (I always keep a full column of medium ones) they’re better suited for out of combat duty. In the heat of a fight rezzing with less than 50% HP, even less Endurance and a Mag 5 Stun is far from ideal. Restore Essence will bring you back with a nearly full green bar and 50% End.
    See that bolded part? That is more telling than anything I could have ever written to bad talk PBs.

    I will say one good thing about a tri-form PB: It's an awesome PUG archetype. Tank having trouble? Dwarf up and help out. No team heals? PB's got ya covered in a pinch. Lacking aoe damage? Nova time. Not to mention the extra XP from quants, voids and cysts.