Delta_Strider

It's redeeming quality is the ability to bloat damage measurements when comparing secondaries.

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That includes seeing the Earthen Assault powers, and they are

1. Stone Spears (4 sec rech, 2.1 sec animation)
2. Stone Mallet
3. Tremor
4. Hurl Boulder (8 or 10 sec rech, 2.5 sec animation)
5. Power Boost
6. Heavy Mallet
7. Seismic Smash
8. Mud Port
9. Fissure

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I like the looks of this set so far. Unless the damage is severely watered down, Build Up shouldn't be necessary with it all being melee, plus Stone Spears sound pretty awesome, 2.1s animation or not.

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Can you feel our breath on the back of your necks yet? We're getting closer . . . . . . . . .

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.... This disturbs me on several levels.

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They can just simply reduce Spec-Ops' aoe mezzes. Reduce them by 15s?


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From what I recall, Mercs were added on late in the CoV development and probably fell under the radar like Energy Aura, and like most AoE mezzes the Spec Op's attacks fell under the "City of Statues" paranoia. Of course, unless you totally rule out that the Henchmen probably couldn't effectively chain-mez a mob and wouldn't hit an entire mob with a mez every time, there's really no reason for them to be over 30 seconds, or even 20s with most of the AoE mezzes hardly being over 16 seconds with 90% enhancement. For what it's worth, even with the increased recharge rate, the mezzes probably wouldn't add the survivability that Thug or Robot henchmen get from their defenses.

Awhile back I created a proposed change to Mercenaries that added survivability along with AoE damage without taking out their uniqueness, but I think it was before the Recharge change, so the recharges were still 60s or so in case a secondary was added that could buff Recharge Rates. I'll have to dig it up someday.

The Medic is as finicky as the Arsonist, they do as much of not more knockback than Robotics for the most part, the damage is almost exclusively Lethal, the Spec Ops are mostly useless due to their slow recharging mezzes and only a few actual attacks, they have most of their AoE damage wrapped up in the Commando's slow attacks, and they have little straight up damage(most of it is DoT-style damage).

The up side to them is that most of the time they're all range, they have solid resistance, and have fairly steady damage. The truth is though that most people that swear by them are Merc/Pain or Merc/Dark, have Achilles's Heel Proc and possibly the Touch of Lady Grey Damage Proc, along with the Resistance Unique, in which case they are fairly effective at range.

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Thugs were a top set before, now they are better then ever. Basically all the problems the set had have been reduced or eliminated.

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That whole "2/3rds Lethal" thing isn't going anywhere anytime soon, though.

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Lethal is an issue but with Enforcers keeping -Res proc up pretty much permanently its much less so.

I manged to pick up the 2nd pet +res aura today for 10 mil just need the 2nd pet +def (does not seem to exist on the BM).

You really notice the difference. 50% Lethal and Smashing resist on the Bruiser is nice. 30% to cold and Fire is nice as well.

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Resistance for the most part is pitiful when it comes down to how much HP the Henchmen have, especially with some Minions and Lts doing as much as one hitting the Henchmen. Even with 20%, 30% or 50% Resistance, if 2 or 3 Traitors zero out the Bruiser, it's pretty much going to end badly without defense. As for the -Res Proc, I personally don't have it in my Enforcers with my current slotting, but for the most part the foes that truly punish you for using Lethal aren't as easy to fix by slotting that Proc, not to mention scaling.

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Thugs were a top set before, now they are better then ever. Basically all the problems the set had have been reduced or eliminated.

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That whole "2/3rds Lethal" thing isn't going anywhere anytime soon, though.

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I am a bit confused, do I have to do anything if I want to KEEP my name? (Ultimus) -- What if someone on the European board has this name, who keeps it?

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Dance off.

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Mercs have lots of numbers (Yay for minion full auto) and can take lots of Achilles'? You can use them safely in BG mode (It DOES work with Defensive GoTo) and stay away from the group so they don't get hit by AoEs.

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The Soldier's Full Auto Assault is only a 5ft Cone. They do a lot of numbers, but most of them will only be one target at a time.

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I would hate to see the math on this one.

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Geek out.

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*Dramatically removes monocle* Dear god...

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Don't want no OP doms. That'd make the self-loathing dom players call for a nerf.

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"IT'S THEIR FAULT WE CAN NEVER HAVE NICE THINGS IN THIS FORUM!"

In my opinion Mercs are pretty much completely eclipsed by Thugs(Not a stretch of the imagination), but other than that Necro, Robotics and Ninjas all have their place and strengths next to Thugs; Thugs is definitely not the superior set(especially if you account for AI).

It will only target enemies within about 20-40 feet of you, I.E if you moved 70ft away, it'd start attacking enemies that got close to you, but wouldn't attack them if they were just 70ft away.

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I would trade the Devs Mercs just to make my Robots/Sonic



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Fix'd.

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Bots: Mostly AoE

Thugs: A mix with slightly less AoE and more Single Target

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Now, now. Don't go spreading misinformation.

Before the level 32 & Upgrade, Bots are almost exclusivly single-target - the Assualt Bot has Flamethrower... and that's the extent of your Bot's AoE before Upgrade.

Thugs, on the other hand, start getting significant AoE with the Enforcer+Equip... right at level 12. Then the Arsonist shows up at 18, and he's EXCLUSIVLY AoE (Well, excepting his basic brawl)! And people wonder why that little psycho dies so much...

Overall, I think they end up with the same kind of AoE - but Thugs collect them as you level, while Bots get them all at one time.

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Bots end up with Stronger AoE capabillities post 32. That is not misinformation. Note I said Thugs have slightly weaker AoE.

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Are we assuming resistance or are we talking about Burn patches? If we're talking about Burn patches, it's only a matter of time before someone comes along and blurts about the Arsonist's Fire Bomb not having a target cap, thus having some sort of mystical unlimited AoE Potential.

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Also, consider this. If you have mag 1 mez protection (default), and the enemy uses a mag 3 hold it will hold you, right? Not if their debuffed by /poison. That hold is now a mag 0.81 hold. A single application wont affect you. Malta stun grenades seem to be mag 4 or higher base.

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Too bad it doesn't work that way.

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Too bad it actually does. I've seen mobs FAIL to mez because of using my debuffs. They hit, I see the mez icon, but it's mag got debuffed enough that I'm not effected. I've also seen KB attacks which fail to cause knockback, or even knock down after I debuff, but did before I hit them with the debuff.

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When mezzes "fail" to mez you as you describe, their duration has been reduced so heavily that after all things accounted for(Lag), the duration simply wasn't long enough to be noticeable, but would have turned off an Offensive toggle regardless. Knockback might be susceptible to simply not taking effect, but that's because knockback enhancement boosts magnitudes and not duration.

As far as I know, there is no mechanic that reduces or increases magnitudes of Holds/Immobs/Fears/etc that isn't hard coded into a power, and according to CoD, there's no such effect when using Weaken.

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Also, consider this. If you have mag 1 mez protection (default), and the enemy uses a mag 3 hold it will hold you, right? Not if their debuffed by /poison. That hold is now a mag 0.81 hold. A single application wont affect you. Malta stun grenades seem to be mag 4 or higher base.

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Too bad it doesn't work that way.

Grave Knights.

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Strong yes. Single Target, yes.

/Poison is by far the weakest secondary for MM. Believe me, I've tried A LOT of combos. I think Thug/Poison is a bit better because it is easier to put Noxious Gas on Bruiser but even that is weaker than other secondaries that can provide team supports. I've tried Thug/Trap that actually put me to sleep a bit (so strong).

Poison's debuffs are a bit over-rated anyway. Freezing Rain puts /Poison to shame most of the time.

PS: mmm, I am not sure which one is suckier.. Poison or Trick Arrow. I think I'll take Poison just because I can't imagine playing Necro or Ninja with Trick Arrow.

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Do you know what makes /poison so freaking nasty? Spammable -heal, -regen, and -special. I've seen EB's that love stun, holds, and knock backs never pulling them off due to -73% strength and duration to their effects. That -special for instance is the difference between a malta stun grenade disorienting you for a minute, or for 15 seconds.

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I'd rather they just not stun me, AKA /Trap's FFG. But yes, enemies with Heals that suddenly stop getting any real benefit from heals is funny, but not a huge all-around benefit, plus for being single target debuffs, you'd hope parts of the first two debuffs would be unresistable. I'd really like Alkaloid to be a Targeted AoE heal too, but I doubt either will happen until we get /Rad or something else added and it semi-trivializes parts of Poison.

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Are any of you considering 'going blue' with your SoA when the expansion comes out? I think it'll will be fun to take my epic AT's over to the other side...

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How is this "Side Switch" stuff suppose to work anyway? Is there going to be an indicator, or how is it going to work anyway?

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They haven't said in detail how it will ultimately work out. It would seem there will be a morality compass as part of it. In addition to your actions making a difference there are two new NPC contacts that will be involved with changing factions. My guess is somewhere blue side heroes will find Maelstrom to go rogue, and villains can search for Desdemona to reform.

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Considering the trailer shows Tyrant and Praetoria, I'm beginning to think we aren't actually going to the blueside. More like entering the dimension where Good is Bad and Bad is Good.

I think we are going to learn more about the Praetorians and get a lot "closer" to them.

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No, they asked Positron point blank in the Boomtown interview if side-switching meant you could take your Brute (for example) from red side to blue. While he hedged on the specifics, the answer was yes.

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Gasp! Positron said side-switching is only from red-side to blue!

That proposal will be Retcon'd at lightning speed.

Ah, this is why I rarely sway away from my Archetype Forum tours. I go to my home server forum for a hope of some amusing antics or pictures of characters in compromising positions, and all I get is this! Of course there's RP, but it has to come to you. I have a few pointers that should help you out.

There's two guides to this; The first is either make a godly, or just blatant "everything" character. Then comes the tricky part; you have to make your character original with the minimal about of work possible, simply be some sort of demon but say you're not, or be some sort of mutant that's "special". Then it's time for your story- the funnest part. Simply put that you have a VV page in your Bio, then leave your VV page a perpetual WIP, therefore never requiring you to write anything, but people will think you're working on it because you got a VV page for it! Now that you have your established character, you just do whatever you want and say whatever you want, because you can and you're superior(Pro tip: proceed to smirk and wink at everyone if your character is female, or be silent and "badass" if your character is male). You'll eventually be loved for one reason or another, but they'll grow tired of you, and you'll have to: Join a clique and shun everyone else, leave RP and become a PvPer, or go to CO in a couple months to start all the way over.

The alternate guide is just make a character for fun with a cool concept that you enjoy playing and find other people who like the same things, but that could take time, and you want results now!

(Note: I'm not saying everyone's character is like either example. Still, I can feel flames from here )

I've respec'd Delta Commander(Bots/Traps) so many times it's not even funny. My general advice is this:


-* You don't need Medicine or Repair if you have Triage Beacon and plenty of defense.


-* Provoke goes a long way for keeping stuff in range of the Traps.


-* Never forget about Web Grenade. It's your root power(unintended pun ) in Traps and can be made useful in every situation.


-* Detonator isn't worth it. Even if your Bots run in, just send them back with Go-To, since the mobs are usually disorganized enough that it didn't get the henchmen killed.


-* Armours, both Resistance and Defense, are always useful, especially Resistance once you have plenty of defense from IO sets.


-* Hasten is always nice.

It'd be nice if it didn't Proc you. Same goes for the Purple Procs.