Cognito

Another question - I am getting targetting drone. How good is this? It seems no "better" than Tactics which seems kind of odd as it only affects me?

3 - For the fitness pool

Thanks folks.

Now,

Can anyone explain what it does?

Ok chaps, any advice on how to slot this rather superb looking power?

I want it up as much as possible so thinking 3 SO recharge. What else needed? acc? damm? end? immob?

Answers on a postcard, or preferably by replying to this post

Mathematically, im not sure about this. Being surrounded by lots of minions all attacking you. Is a defence based toon more likely to get felled quickly?. With such an immense amount of small damage attacks being thrown at you the chance of you getting felled becomes incredibly low. Im not sure in THIS circumstance a defence tank is any worse of than a resistance tank (who will be hit by everything around him far far far far more often than a defence based tank). My maths is far from excellent but in my limited way I dont think a defence based tank is worse off. (Someone handy with normal distribution and probability vs damage / dps / aps may correct me ).

The problem is, like Spad says, when you face off a couple of big big hitters - in this case you do run the gauntlet and are worse of than resistance tanks.

3 shotted at most in my experience. And only with the really big hitters. Mind you, I run with tough on, which takes a little of the sting out of the big big smash/lethal damage. I cant ever recall being 2 shotted short of an AV / GM and even then...

They Squishy hype is from the days before scaling defence.

Nowadays they are pretty resiliant - and are the best aggro grabbers in the game with chilling embrace. Once you have CE you cant play any other tank!

Funilly enough, the "String of bad luck will kill you" argument against defence actually matters the least to tanks - they have such high hit points it has to be a very very long string of bad luck to actually fell you. Im far more worried about defence / string of bad luck on my stalker for instance, where a couple of hard hits will knock them over instantly.

Energy/Energy? Pffft!

Anyway, advice on what powers to DROP now, please! THe message im getting is that everything is good, bar (possibly) time bomb.

What to drop?

Just rolling a new alt, an AR/Dev blaster cos they look different style of play to other blasters.

Id welcome any tips on powers / slotting.

Im keen to get nearly every power on primary - I want to have real multi purpose offensive jugganaut gun!

All tips greatly received but in particular...


1. Time bomb looks really awful. Is it?

2. Is the snipe really worth it with no build up / aim, and a fairly long range base attack (it does look cool, i know)

3. Ignite and caltrops? workable? do you need caltrops (a power i dont generally like) for ignite to be valid (im looking at those AVs)

4. What travel power? Choice between Jump, Fly, and Teleport. Any Ideas?


Toon will be almost soley PvE. Mainly team focussed but solo-able.

[ QUOTE ]
Fair enough. I had assumed that you were big into 'large teams and AoE damage' due to your posts on Spines/DA on the scrapper forums.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am, I am

Quills is a truly excellent power. Thats why it has an end cost which is sky high!

Big groups = big xp
Big groups = big spawns
Big spawn = AoE heaven

Quills is excellent if you look at it carefully. The numbers arent big, but they occur a lot and really add up. The dvantage of toggle damage is that it doesnt interrupt your attack chain like spine burst does for instance. Thats right - it is in ADDITION to your regular attacks.

Slightly off track, but my advice in CoX (i.e. the one that I wish I had been given and listened to) is NOT to get hypnotised by the red and green numbers floating around in combat.

The "invisible" powers, like radation debuffs, force fields, -regen powers, Small DoT powers (like quills) are ones which dont slap one in the face as "t3h ub3r" but, to the observant, are actually far more impressive than a nice big heal. Quills falls into this category. You wont get a big "wow" of laying low lots of enemies with big hits, but take a step back and observe the wood (rather than the trees), and you will notice that for some reason enemies just die around you and you plow on from mob to mob considerably faster. Now why would that be, heh?

Teams will always be faster xp due to built in xp bonus the larger the team. Irrespective of the fact that larger teams get progressively more synergistically powerful due to AoE effects.

THe problem is, getting into good teams. You will find that by the 30s, and certainly byt the 40s, that good teams are the norm, not the exception.

Therefore, I would suggest as you now hit the phase of the game where players are generally experienced, you should concentrate more on getting into good, experienced, and large teams. And focussing on AoE.

Unfortunately, scrappers are not the best choice for big teams due to their lack of specialisation and AoE. But spines are the exception. I would therefore advertise yourself as a spines AoE specialist and get known as a good team scrapper.

Of course, the fastest way to get a 50 would be to get 7 freinds and start from level 1 as radation defenders. Set mission difficulty to impossible and cream everything that you meet without pause.

With all due respect, its not the build that the problem. Its simply that Khelds dont do it for me at all. The only AT that feels more dull is scrappers.

I dont play CoX to be "uber". I play it because i like an original toon with a cool concept. Kheldians have the concept pretty much inbuilt which is an instant turn of for me.

I will never get into Kheldians. Even if they boosted all damage and resistances by 100%, i just find them dull and uninspiring.

Admittedly, I only got my shade up to 27. And I will only play for the extra content now.

Simply put, they are not uber, and where never designed to be. They are a jack of all trades, for sure.

But therein lies the problem. If I want to do damage, Ill play my blaster who has far more tricks and power. If I want to tank, Ill play my tank, who again is more resilient and grabs aggro much more effectively. My controller controls better, even my radation defender heals better. Most characters debuff better, some characters buff better. My scrapper melees harder and is more resilient. My Kheldian, because of lack of specialisation is worse in every single domain than the "Specialist" AT.

The attractions are - flexibility if team situation changes, a few original powers like extract essence, and new content.

I completely fail to see the attraction myself.

Standard CoX play pattern

1. Rush your first toon to level 50 using every trick you can in the book, powerlevelling ,leeching, going afk, dodging debt at the expense of fun. Missing lots of content and fun on the way.

2. Roll a Kheldian

3. Get completely fed up with how awful they are by level 10-20.

4. Roll another "Standard" toon. Have much more fun, dont worry about debt, see more content, relax.


Enjoy!

Yikes!

Shockwave. Utter pants. Drivel. The blasters version of Gale from the storm set. Yuk.

Personally, although single target knockback has its uses, an AOE knockback cone will just drive teams mad.

And in Sirens Song you have a much more useful panic button which is much much more team freindly.

hey ho chaps

Finally got my MM, Weaponeer, to level 40 (What is it with finding teams on CoV??? )

He is a staminaless Bots/TA tech origin victorian inventor. (Has not taken, and will not take, the pulse rifle attacks).

Any advice on patron to choose?

The Mace Mastery certainly fits best with concept although there is a draw/redraw problem.

Any thoughts?

Never noticed any particular difference in any MM sets to be honest. They all have their strengths / weaknesses.

Robots: Good all round, excel at nothing. Energy damage less resisted.

Zombies: Stupid, high damage, but melee. Slightly less control. Some dark / toxic damage less resisted.

Thugs: High damage but nearly all smash/lethal. A bit squishier (no resistance). Gang War arguably most useful of that level power in all MM sets. Worst control powers (afaik).

Ninjas: Mobile. Less clever. Fairly good damage and defence, but mainly smash/lethal. Poorish control options.


Mercs: Highest intellect. Good control options. Fairly resilient. Damage ok but mainly smash/lethal.



You takes your pick really. I think thugs slightly overpowered, and ninjas slightly underpowered but thats just me. Personally I think thugs has a bullseye painted on it for a nerf - particularly enforcers stacked leadership buffs.

Actually, if the tank is holding the aggro, and there arent many AoEs flying about, the scrapper CAN normally turn of armours (best to keep the mez one on I guess!). In a solid team with a solid tank, a scrappers armours ARE pretty useless (whereas every other AT will have fairly helpful secondaries).

[ QUOTE ]
but at the same time when I invite a tanker, it's not really their secondary I'm interested in as a general rule.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, you might be quite interested if they have an Ice secondary which is noticibly different (more control / tougher tank but less damage).

Spines / Dark Scrapper Here. Quills AND death shroud...

Basically, it boils down to AoE. Quills gives very good damage per second without hypnotising you about big numbers. It IS an endurance hog tho (like most AoE).

Solo / Duo, AoE aren't normally worth it.
3-5 man teams they are worth it but don't shine.
6-8 man teams with huge spawns... mmmmmmm.....

(All IMHO of course).

I can say that my Spines/Dark scrapper will outdamage any other scrapper in an 8 man team. NOT because of large red numbers floating around, but because I am hitting lots and lots of minions all the time for more modest damage.

I think the point is that an empath who is only buffing / healing and not attacking (time and endurance permitting) is not functioning at full effectiveness for the team.

Leeching is the wrong word. I cant think of one which describes an AT deliberately not performing at full capacity.

There is a lot of discussion about specialisation here.

Going back to the OP, the answer boils down to: If you are a certain AT, a team should reasonably expect you to perform reasonably well at that AT's role. Using or not using your secondaries may or may not be relevant to this. But the question the team should be asking is not "is the tank attacking" or "is the defender blasting", but "is the tank taking the vast majority of the aggro"? and "is the defender protecting us?".

Endurance and Aggro permitting, SHOULD be used for blasting, even if its just a neutrino bolt.

Just because damage is mediocre for tanks and defenders, dosent mean it dosent count.

Really, I cant see any reasonable team complaining about tanking, but every reasonable team should complain if the tank doesent jump in first and grab aggro.

I had to, a couple of months ago, ask a stone tank.. in GRANITE form (yes, granite), without taunt power, to run his mud pots. And every 10 minutes ago I would have to remind him. Now that folks, is behaviour worth complaining about. Not the fact he was hitting enemies with a big axe.