Cognito

AFAIK The SCrapper primaries go:

Spines
Dual Blades
Claws
Broadsword/Katana
Dark Melee
Martial Arts

With Spines being the most AoE heavy, and Martial Arts being the least.

It should be noted that Spines is head and shoulders above anything else in terms of AoE. If you want the highest damage scrapper in teams, Spines is the only way to go.

As far as secondaries go, Dark Armour is the only set that causes damage (and its AoE).

Unfortunately, SPines and Dark Armour are both extreme endurance drainers (not suprising given the huge AoE effects they dish out). The combination is not to be recommended unless you a) regularly team with a Kinetics Defender/Controller, or b) can invest a lot (i do mean a lot) of influence on invention enhancements.

For this reason, Spines/Regen and Spines/Willpower are both quite popular as both Regen and Willpower give extra endurance, meaning Spines is more playable.

Fire/SS will give you more damage.

Note that tanks play quiite differently to brutes. A taunt aura is obligatory, and many would argue that you cant tank without the taunt power from your secondary.

Level 35 Earth/Sonic Here.

Soloing is painful, although Sonics mighty -res powers help.

Mr. Poo now has 80% Res to Smash, 100% Res to Psionic, 90% Res to Everything else. Enough to make a Granite Tank weep He is a bit more keen to run in and grab aggro these days, making Sonic Disruption feild a handy effect to put on him.

Not there yet, but I imagine Earthquake/Volc Gasses/Liquify could create a horribly nasty zone.

Deleted my Grav/Sonic, mostly for concept reasons. Wormhole onto Liquify would work well, but Sonic Disruption did not go well on a Pet who knocbacks everything.

Just my 2 inf.

Lvl 50 Grav/Rad here.

No problems as far as I am concerned. Gravs wormhole is a general pain (worst AoE stun as far as I can see - although best "openener") but not a huge problem. The only other KB is Propel... and its not aproblem if you spam immobilise.

I suppose Singularity is the only other consideration. Its KB aura is a much underappreciated effect - and has helped me out a far few times by sitting under it. Sing dosent charge into melee unless you do (and even then usually holds back). But i suppose it does mean you may run into problems with Choking cloud. I didnt take it, but it IS a good power (its on my level 50 Rad defender but thats another story).

Not really a downside to Grav/Rad. It is probably one of the most "soloable" (but not "farmable") Controllers, and hence least "teamy" controllers, but any controller is always welcome in teams.

I am not a PvP'er, but Grav/Rad can be a mean controller in duelling PvP, due to its very high "burst" ST damage (propel) that sets it aside from other controllers.

Hey ho folks

Smoke from Fire control. Thinking of putting an Invention (Dark Watchers) Proc: chance for -recharge debuff in it.

Would this aggro its target if it "proc'd"?Given that smoke debuff dosent?

My rule of thumb

The Role of the Tank

Level 1-11

Tank goes in first, and that it.


Level 12-21

Tank goes in first
Tank make sure Boss is attacking Tank

Level 22+

Tank goes in first
Tank make sure Boss attacking Tank
Tank aim to get 80-90% of aggro


All of above is dependent on rest of team make up, and level of support, but its a fair rule of thumb of what you should / should not expect of a tank, i think.

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If it is true that a controller can out damage a blaster, then surly on the new changes to taunt he wont be very safe at all and will draw aggro regardless of what else is about.

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Like a tank?

If one toon is safer and does more damage than another (ono average) something is out of kilter and needs anjusting if you ask me.

It will all come out in the wash (i.e. datamining) anyway.

ACtually this seems a very pertinent point.

At level 50 the cost of defeat is so little the game beceomes much more focussed on "damage" toons that "protect" toons.

This should really be addressed.

Anyhow, back OT...

How about a 50% base damage increase to all ST holds / immobilises,

and Reduce containment bonus to 75%?

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Oh I accept the Devs will continue to amend the power sets. But I hope for two things:
1) they listen to their customers about what needs changing
2) they put the resource into new content, because I feel this is more benefical to the health of the game.

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I agree in general but for two points.

Customers, as human beings in general, and even the Dev's, have a tendency to short-sightedness.

E.g. ED cause a HUGE uproar at the time. The Dev's stood firm and I think we have a much better game because of it.

Occassionally, the Dev's have to stand firm in the interest of long term health.


Secondly, the Dev's have access to one thing we don't. Datamining.

I would prefer they used this than listen to a select few forumites whining and moaning. Its unbiased. Not flawless, but unbiased.

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Heres an idea - why don't we ask the Powers that Be to leave ALL the current power sets alone and spend the time developing new power sets and new in game content.


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Amen.

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1. Because balancing can take a lot less coding/resources that new content / sets / whatever.

2. Because balancing might just be good for long term health of the game.

Whatever our veiws, the Dev's seem to be consistently striving for balancing with various buffs, nerfs, and buffnerfs.

So whether we like it or not, its probably with us.

Options

1. Pretend its not happening.

2. Accept its happening but do nothing.

3. Accept it has happened but hope it wont continue.

4. Accept its happening and try to give constructive ideas on it.

This would be a reasonably elegant solution. However, I am concerned it slectively "nerfs" AoE Sets (ummm.. Fire springs to mind) and buffs ST Sets (like Illusion particularly).

HOw about doubling ST effects and +50% to AoE effects?

Good thread!

Contaiment v2.0 sounds a good idea to me.

As an easy fix I would say it gives +12.5% accuracy and a +100% damage bonus on single target attacks, and +7.5% accuracy and +75% damage on AoE attacks

(Slight emphasis on ST attacks because containment was, as I see it, introduced to allow Controllers to solo effectively more than be "AoE damage kings").

Other thoughts I had:

Containment: any attack on a "contained" foe does an additional 50% damage (of base, and not buffable) of untyped damage.

This would particularly benefit Earth controllers who have a devil of a time soloing.


Just off top of my head.


Personally, Im wonder if abandoning containment alltogether would be an idea. Buff base Immob/Hold damage and increase "Hold Crit" chance which is a far better conceptual inherent for controllers.

Really? I find it pretty good now they have sorted the animation out.

Id agree there. Its best to "proactively" taunt, to make sure nobody is getting hit in the first place. Good tanking takes some situational awareness.

However, the wheel sometimes comes off (thank goodness, be a dull game otherwise). In an emergency, when someones HP bar is plummetting fast, I sometimes taunt through them. The alternative is take an extra second to determine exactly the threat and thats sometimes to long.

If you cant IMMEDIATELY identify the threat and target them, then I would taunt through the toon in the red. You have an 80-90% chance of getting a result, which is better than a delay and a faceplant.

Just my 2 inf.

Defender Bots: Defence is priority. 2acc, 2dam, 2 def is how I slot mine. Heal enhancers a bit of a waste of time. Disorientate would be a possibility but personally i skipped it.

Poison Gas arrow. Probably not worth it solo. But in teams effectively giving 15% damage mitigation to everyone is well worth it.

Medicine Pool. Very optional. With health you should be regenerating health faster than you take damage (provided body guard is on) given all your damage mitigation tools in Trick Archer. I skipped it and never missed it except for some hard solo Elite Boss fights.

Depends on how one uses AoE holds. Many people like to shoot em off when they can. I am of the "I'd rather not use it when not need it, than lament its absence when needed" school of play.

Both work fine

From my experience as lvl 50 MM/TA

General Point: TA powers are low end cost - and as you are going the stamina route, you may well not end reducers. At the very least you could say end reducers are low priority.

Glue Arrow. One of the bread and butter TA powers. It should be up as much as possible so 3 recharge enhancers (or IO equivilant). Slow is optional.

Repair: I only put on one rech reducer. It recharges fairly slowly and works best as an "oh heck" power... end reduction seems fairly redundant to me.

Oil SLick Arrow. Needs maxed out dam and rech enhancnement before anything else. 3 rech 3 dam would be the no-argument slotting with SO. If you are going IO, still make sure rech and dam are fully enhanced. Any other bonuses come a very distant second in priority. This power is the crowning glory of TA and it should be up as much as possible.

EMP: Works best as a wonderful "Oh s..." power. 2 acc, 3 hold would be my slotting, maybe a recharge. IMO best used in emergencies, rather than routinely (and then it isnt up when it really needs to be).



Otherwise everything seems fairly robust. I got flash arrow and find it a pretty decent power (for the -percep rather than -acc) but you may not think so (-percep always works best in teams when you are in danger of aggroing two mobs.. can be a life saver).

In rad/rads defence, it has a very good mez attack (cosmic burst) unlike fire.

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You have Quills and SPine Burst for PvP????

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You might want to read the topic's title properly. It clearly states 'Back to PvE...'

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I did want to, hence I did.

I was replying to SRM's post re his PvP build.

You have Quills and SPine Burst for PvP????

I would disagree there. Bosses are going to be easier for stalkers, and Elite Bosses more so.

Unless a stalker is going to be playing on heroic and avoiding any ELite Bosses, this is a buff for solo play.

I appreciate the change means less damage to minions, but I would imagine its still plenty enough to one shot most of them unless playing at a ridiculous level (more than one could get from playing solo for instance).

Its a buff to solo play as far as I can see. Maybe not huge, but where it counts.

Generally I would agree, except

1. Sometimes people like to do "fast" TF for badge and recipe drop. For example, the "big 6" of needed for TFC accolade on CoX. In such cases, things go much much faster with AoE. Killing the AV acounts for less than 1% of total TF time, and generally isnt a huge challenge. Sure, a ST specialist makes it go faster, but its a drop in the ocean compared to total TF time. So if you are doing a TF with a veiw to doing it respectably fast (and some TF can be a drag some Im thinking of this in terms of "fun" not farming") you may well be inclined to "AoE teams".

2. There are some TF where the AV summons large groups of minions. As far as I understand it, this is pretty much by design so that AoE specialists have a big role. The Catalyx AV and Lord Recluse / STF are the ones that spring to mind.


As an aside, I was using my example to illustrate how I would prefer a stalker buff that

a) didnt buff solo play (or very little)
b) vastly buffed team play (or a lot)

Instead we have one which is a moderate buff to solo and team play.

Would agree there - the change will certainly help Stalkers join TF / Trials.

PS: Actuallyu one of the reasons I was advocating stalkers doing higher crit chances vs held / slept opponents is that it would also help Dominators, who sadly are another AT that is a "Mercy slot" in the LRSF (due to AV problems).